Veterans Match Report
Hampshire Veterans Cup 17/11/07
Basingstoke 3 Portsmouth 24
by Simon Newsham
Pompey set off up the M3 on their defence of the trophy missing four
first choice backs due to injuries, illness and a badly timed holiday
which may prove costly. Dave Ladd rose Lazarus-like from his sickbed to
take the full back role and a new and improved Brit Pearce with no
hydrogenated fats pulled on the number one shirt which had the
Basingtoke front row a bit worried but the former number eight has
resumed his career in the backs and his opposite number at inside centre
was clearly not relishing the prospect of tackling him as the teams
lined up for the start.
Soon after kick off an ill advised run from the home right wing was
abruptly stopped by The Viking and the referee gave
first penalty for not releasing the ball. Sean Godkin missed this one
from the touchline but would soon make amends. Wally Wilson went into
contact and set up quick ball from Caspall to outside half Brainwood who
dummied his opponent and made forty metres before hands in the ruck gave
to the Pompey twenty-two metre line, Bungle decided it would be easier
to come in from the side instead of going all the way around the back
and the resulting penalty was slotted to make it 3-3, this was the last
time Basingstoke were on level terms in this game which Pompey took
complete hold of. Another outrageous dummy by Brainwood fooled the hosts
fly-half and set off a Pompey charge which was only stopped with Dave
Ladd 15 metres from the tryline, a Basingtoke player went over the top
and a penalty awarded. Ladd got up from the ruck with a nasty cut above
his eye which needed treatment and Newsham came on as blood replacement.
Godkin put the penalty through the posts to make the score 6-3.
Some mention must be made about left wing Piers Howorth whose defensive
kicking from hand needs a bit of work especially in the chasing
department, this is the Vets, there are no enthusiastic youngsters to
chase your kicks for you.
On fifteen minutes the home scrum was turned over by Pompey, Haggis,
Hindle and Lane proving too tough for the Basingstoke front row and this
set in motion the forward domination of the afternoon, Jim Brainwood
went on a run and almost broke clean through the defence, Kieran Godkin
was on hand to pick up the ball but was halted only metres from the
line. The Pompey line-out was a key area and it goes to show that the
training session paid dividends as well as fines. The pressure continued
but a balloon pass by Sean Godkin in midfield was almost intercepted by
the
the ball out of the air and kill off any danger. On the half hour,
Brainwood again made the play by chipping into the vacant space behind
the home forwards for Kieran and Geoff Bullard to chase but once again
being caught just short of the tryline resulting in a scrum five to
Pompey. From the scrum Caspall went blind and slipped a well timed pass
to the recently taped up Dave Ladd who touched down in the left corner
for a well deserved try. The conversion was missed and
into the half time break 11-3 ahead but significantly ahead in posession
and territory.
The second half began in the gloom but the floodlights came to the
rescue of the travelling Pompey fans who were peering into the darkness
from their vantage point high in the grandstand, they were on hand to
cheer Bernie Mallender rolling back the years on the right wing, an
early scrum and another blind move saw Bernie make plenty of good
yardage into the opposition half and the tackler just couldn't resist
having a bit of a fumble for the ball on the ground and yet another
kickable penalty for Godkin from the right, twenty-five metres out, 14-3
now and the hosts realising they were in trouble but had no answer,
their only real way of upsetting the Pompey bandwagon was by being
consistently offside a tactic which the referee chose to ignore. The
with Roger Highgate now on for John Whitehouse who had given his all in
the first half.
A brief foray into the
pass in the centres saw the
but was put down by Mallender and Pearce. Gavin Hindle had scrummaged
superbly all afternoon but the hard work had taken it's toll and he was
replaced by Jonah Jones after fifty minutes. Another break out by
Caspall from a scrum led to Pearce almost getting through the defence
but the hosts once again offended at the breakdown and a penalty into
the corner gave the forwards another chance to show off their line-out
skills, clean ball was quickly set up and man of the match Mike Caspall
who had controlled his forwards superbly all day spun a pass to
Brainwood who with two offside Basingstoke backs alongside him had no
options left or right but sweetly dropped the ball through the posts to
give Pompey an unasailable 17-3 lead. Moving into the last fifteen
minutes and it was all Portsmouth, they could do as they pleased and a
quick swap between number eight and inside centre caught the home side
napping as Brit Pearce picked up at the base of the scrum to blast
through several tackles, after successive phases of play the hosts
defence creaked and finally buckled leaving Sean Godkin to waltz through
under the posts, his conversion taking the score to 24-3.
camped out in their opponents half for the most of the second half and
were totally in command of this encounter, this was a classy performance
with great individual moments and support from the entire team.
Congratulations to the Vets on making it to the semi-final next Saturday
at Farnborough, all supporters will be welcome and all playing and
non-playing Vets will be required to travel on this second cup road trip
of the season.