Romsey RFC 69 – 5 Ventnor RFC 1XV
On a sunny Saturday the Ventnor 1st XV excitedly set out for their first away game of the season, after the disappointment of not playing the weekend before due to the Winchester 2XV not turning up due to lack of players.
Knowing the Romsey 1st XV would be keen for revenge over an Isle of Wight team following their undermanned loss to Isle of Wight 1st XV the previous week.
Faced with a challenging prospect, the much changed Ventnor team came out fighting, it was clear from the offset Romsey’s forwards were no match for Ventnor’s and scrum dominance was achieved.
Spurred on by their loss the weekend before and following a tightly contested first 15 minutes Romsey managed to find a weak spot in the Ventnor defence and scored several try’s and penalty kicks, the half time score of 33-0 did not reflect the extremely hard work put in by the Ventnor team.
After a morale boosting half time pep talk, the game was back on with strong performances from all the Ventnor team, once again the scrum dominance shone through, then due to an unfortunate set of circumstances a yellow card was given to Chris Hill and Ventnor were down to 14 men, this didn’t deter their spirit but allowed Romsey the chance to capitalise on the reduced numbers finding the holes in the Ventnor defence and scored several more tries.
Ventnor refused to go down easily though and in the last 10 minutes proved this with a strong start to play followed by a dominating scrummage win. This was Ventnor’s chance to prove their determination and it paid off, receiving the ball from a ruck win, debutant Ricky Keyes brushed the Romsey defence aside scoring Ventnor’s only try of the game but this represented more than just a try, it showed Ventnor’s sheer determination and heart to continue fighting no matter what the odds were.
Three first team debutants ran out for Ventnor this weekend and fitted in seamlessly. Ongoing recruitment is very strong right now at the club and we hope to have a few more run out in Blue and White soon. The futures bright…
Thank you to team sponsors AJ Wells and Sons and Red Funnel.
AJ Wells Man of the Match – Ricky Keyes
Red Funnel Moment of the Match – Chris Hill
Team: Pratt, Jones, Keyes, Green, Teague, Colson, Hill, Gough, Roberts, Lines, Blake, Dawson, Edwards, Blow, Babington, Tucker, Hargreaves
A full report will appear in: the Ventnor RFC Magazine Autumn 2018 edition.