Thanks to Nolan for this first report of the rugby season. Ed
Ventnor 1st XV 0-18 Romsey 1st XV
After a long, but well rewarding pre-season, Ventnor played their first game of the season at home to Romsey in front of the Watcombe Bottom faithful.
The game didn’t start how Ventnor wanted with conceding two tries within the first five minutes to make the score 12-0 to the opposition.
That gave Ventnor the wake-up call they needed. With some good runs from Damien Marriott, Aaron Newman and William Babington Ventnor saw themselves working their way into the oppositions 22.
Eventually Ventnor had an attempted at a penalty kick, but unfortunately Todd Riches couldn’t slot it. There was a lot of positive play between backs and forwards such as Todd Riches playing in his new position of centre, linking nicely with Sam Lines at 10 and Danny Newbery playing prop, but Ventnor just couldn’t penetrate the Romsey line.
Down to 14 men
Either side of half time Ventnor saw themselves down to 14 men, but even with a man down, Ventnor still were very strong in the scum with Andy Gilbert and Lewis Jones in the front row and the two James’ (Morley and Pemberton) at locks showing some good promise for the season. Romsey were award a couple more penalties that they managed to convert.
Ventnor spent a lot of the second half defending, due to Romsey kicking the ball a lot into the Ventnor half, but Romsey just could find a way through the strong defence with the likes of Shaun Williams and Jacobus Stemmet putting in some very hard hits.
Ventnor losing 18-0 to a strong Romsey side looking to bounce back from relegation from Hampshire 1 last season.
After the game, coach Marriott said,
“Even though it’s hard to suffer defeat on the first game of the season there were many positives to take into next week, I know the lads will knuckle down at training and show the rest of the league we are a team not to mess with.”
Sponsors
With Wightlink’s many years of sponsorship finishing at the end of last season, the post-game speeches saw the first outing of the new awards. AJ Wells promoted to the Man of the Match awards and the Ventnor Haven Fishery “cod-eye” award replacing the historic Black Dog award that has served so well over the past few seasons.
A thank you as always to the match sponsors: Hose Rhodes Dickson, John Liddelow Financial Services, Yates’ Brewery, Ayres Punchard Financial Services, IW Owl and Falconry Centre, Northwood Garage.
Next match
Next week sees Ventnor away to take on a tough Overton team.
“The future’s bright, the future’s blue and white”
AJ Wells Man of the Match : Jacobus Stemmet.
Ventnor Haven Fishery “cod eye” of the day : Tommy Engelgardt.
Team: Newbery, Jones, Gilbert, Pemberton, Morley, Stemmet, Williams, Davies, Pike, Lines, Newman, Riches, Turner, Babington, Marriott
Subs: Engelgardt, Bolton, Winter
Ventnor 2nd XV 33-43 Romsey 2nd XV
Ventnor were on the score board after just ten seconds after the starting kick was failed to be caught and an onrushing Dan Bell touched it down to score a rather bizarre try.
One minute later and a try from co-captain Ed Blake, lead Ventnor to believe this was going to be very one-sided in their favour. However a couple of quick scores from Romsey soon put pay to this. The game was pretty even until Blake scored his second try of the game after a strong run from Justinas and a pop pass put him through.
Ventnor’s line out was very strong with the two jumpers keeping the Romsey pack guessing. A quick ball from the magical Allan Bridges put Blake through a gap for his third try, but a high tackle just before the line meant that a penalty try was awarded and Blake avoided having to buy a “post-match jug” for his hat trick. James Rogers with the conversion meant Ventnor were in a strong position going into the second half.
The second half momentum swung between both sides. The only score of the half for Ventnor was from flanker Ryan Tulloch who crashed over from a scrum. Ventnor had two tries disallowed in the half including one from Sam Dawson which was deemed to have a crossing incident in the build-up. Rogers had one too, disallowed after the referee could not rule on the grounding. Woz Riches was ever reliable at full back and his strong kicking game kept Romsey at bay.
A final twist
However there was one final twist. After some confusion as to what the score actually was, the referee declared that Ventnor were trailing by three points despite their belief they were in the lead with four minutes to go.
This lead to a rush attack which unfortunately lead to an intercepted pass and Romsey streaked away to give them the final say.
All in all a positive performance that gives Ventnor things to work on before next week’s game away to Isle of Wight II.
AJ Wells Man of the Match – Sam Dawson
Ventnor Haven Fishery Cod-eye of the Day – Ed Blake
Team: Pratt, Pettifer, Wootton, Martin, Davis, Tulloch, Dawson, Bell, Bridges, Rogers, Pearl, Blake, Justinas, Adkins, Riches
Subs: Rhysmate, Downs, Saville
Image: sjbresnahan under CC BY 2.0
