Match report: Southampton RFC XV v Ventnor RFC 2nd XV 14/04/2018
Southampton RFC XV 60-10 Ventnor RFC 2nd XV
Reporter Stuart Babington
Ventnor 2s travelled to Southampton for the last game of the season on a joint away day for both teams.
The side were a good mix of young and old with 3 of the players equally more than 150 years! Ventnor started with 14 as the over sees player Mark Wilson was late arriving, probably as confused as the taxis that dropped off both teams at all the wrong grounds!
Ventnor started brightly and if it hadn’t been for a last ditch tackle of veteran fly half Ross Harris they would have gone ahead. At this point Southampton woke up & their pacey back line started to dominate. Wilson arrived and Ventnor were back up to 15, at this point the impressive Chris Hill, who had been making huge tackles all over the park had to leave the filed with a damaged shoulder. Southampton lent Ventnor a player, who then ran down to wing to score for the visitors. Warren Riches missed the conversion. Ventnor buoyant from this score, then ceased on a loose ball & the ever green Dean Magnurson scored in the corner. The conversion was missed again.
Pretty much the play for the remainder of the match was one way traffic with Southampton pulling off well-rehearsed moves & using their “Giant” to find the gaps to burst through the line. Ventnor tried the kicking game with Alan Fox, Warren Riches, Ben Gough & Stuart Babington all trying out some new interesting positional kicking!
At the end of the game some would say Ventnor through the dice with this team but ended up being hunted down like a scared Fox & took a good whipping, but all in all an enjoyable day
A special mention to Gareth Gough making his debut and showed some promise, also to the tiny hands of doom Andy Teague who returned to playing after his hospitalisation and finally to Alan Fox who’s nose is still intact!
AJ Wells & Sons Man of the Match: Chris Hill
Ventnor Haven Fishery Cod Eye of the Day Alan Fox
Team: Scott Gough, Ben Gough, Jacobus Stemmet (Capt), Mark Wilson, Stuart Babington, Andy Teague, Chris Hill, Dean Magnurson, Alan Fox, Ross Harris, Gareth Gough, Dan Vyze, Cory Turner, David McCallum, Warren Riches