Ventnor went into their third league game full of confidence after two very encouraging wins. They started brightly and against the run of play Solent scored a well-worked try to take a seven points to nil lead. Ventnor regained their composure quickly and began to dominate almost all aspects of the game.
The forwards dominated the scrum and made big in-roads into the home defence time and again until Captain Danny Newbery crashed over from close range to even the score at seven points apiece. The remainder of the first half continued in the same vein with Ventnor coming close to scoring on several occasions. Having played into the wind and up-hill in the first-half, Ventnor were confident of victory.
Sadly, Ventnor were maybe over-confident and slipped back into the pattern of the last two weeks, where there second-half performance was not as focussed as the first. Solent took advantage of Ventnor’s lack of concentration and ran in three tries in the first 20 minutes of the half. Ventnor had Gavin Davis sin-binned during this period and did not adjust to the loss. The final twenty minutes was end-to-end as Ventnor once more upped their game. With ten minutes left Ross Harris rounded off a good move to bring them within reach of the hosts. When Cooper converted a penalty from long range the comeback looked like it might be on, but Solent held on for the win.
Ventnor entertain Fareham Heathens at home this coming Saturday (6th October) at 3pm.