Match report: Ventnor 2nd XV v Millbrook 2nd XV (away)

Posted by James on September 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Match report: Millbrook 57 – Ventnor 0

26th September 2009

Captain Rob Newton stepped up to the mark this week and against all the odds managed to summon up 16 players by calling in a few favours. By Friday evening that was down to 15 and on Saturday’s departure to the mainland it was 14. By the time we had reached Portsmouth the numbers were reduced to just 12! Despite this early set back the remaining 12 were determined to give a good account of themselves. At this point it should be mentioned that two of those 12 had never played for Ventnor, Chris Thompson who last played at school six years ago and Mark Pike had never played rugby, ever! Because of this the Ventnor warm up mainly consisted of the rules of the game, experienced players such as Andy Walton freely passing on their knowledge. Fortunately Millbrook had players to spare and two kindly took to the field with Ventnor making it 14 against 15 to make it a more even affair.

The match was played in very hot conditions for this time of the year and that showed on both sides as the tempo was fairly slow, although Millbrook did have the edge on pace. That extra pace and the extra man paid dividends for Millbrook who consistently moved the ball wide and exploited the gaps in Ventnor’s defence. Ventnor started brightly and threatened with two early attacks that ultimately came to nothing. Millbrook then came on strong and pinned Ventnor back in their own 22 before running in their first try of the day. From that point on the stage was set and Millbrook continued to run in the tries, seemingly at will.

In the second half the Ventnor pack were beginning to get on top of their counterparts giving the backs a bit more ball and as a team they began to move forward. Confidence grew and the whole team improved playing it’s best rugby in the last 20 minutes. In the end Millbrook proved too strong and continued their dominant backs performance and earned a great win, made even more triumphant by not allowing a single Ventnor score.

To a man Ventnor left everything on the field, to the point that Captain Rob Newton could not decide on a man of the match. That honour eventually fell to the Millbrook captain who chose outside centre Jonathan Meadowcroft for his effort, support play and moving the ball forward. The AJ Wells Black Dog Award went to Mark Pike for surviving his first ever rugby match!

Ventnor I.Collins, A.Walton, R.Newton, G.Creighton, M.Pike, G.Ball, W.Riches, S.Pickard, J.Meadowcroft, C.Thompson, Z.Davis, E.Bodros (plus 2 borrowed Millbrook players)