02 February
2008
Portsmouth Vets 76 Bognor 19
by Simon Newsham
The first game of the six nations clashing with this fixture saw the vets squad
dwindle to sixteen, but although short on numbers the fact that Bruce Collins
opted for the bench just shows what a strong side Portsmouth put out against an
ageing Bognor who bolstered their team with a few youngsters.
Up front notable absentees were regulars and historical experts Dave Harris,
Jonah Jones and Jon Whitehouse, Mitch Tett is still injured and Rod Hammerton
unavailable but a strong pack led by Mike Bailey went into this match without
any forward replacements.
Once underway the scoreboard was in action after two minutes, Caspall to Reilly
who worked a miss-pass and scissors on his centres popped to Ladd who drew the
last man superbly and put Mark Borrowdale away down the left to score the first
of his four tries in the game. 5-0 and it was looking like a rout already even
though the hosts were against a strong wind. From the restart Hindle caught and
went into the tackle, with the ruck formed Caspall popped to Bungle who charged
on but he was interfered with by the referee, the ball bounced clear of Baileys
grasp and the Bognor scrum-half caught it and ran unopposed under the Pompey
posts. The vets new mascot and referee on the touchline Geoff Jones, calmly
explained how, as the referee impeded the
Fine work from the Pompey half backs sent Sean Godkin on a break, he skipped
past several desperate tacklers to slip the ball to the shadowing number six on
his right, obviously believing this flanker to be his own brother Kieran, Sean
put him in for the try but imagine his horror when the try-scorer turned out to
be non other than "The Great White"? Yes it was he, Chalky had turned
up late and Kieran had bagged the number seven jersey. Sean converted and the
score became 12-5, with only six minutes gone the game was heading towards a
cricket score, you know the kind of game, leaving work early to watch a group
stage Rugby World Cup tie between two second tier rugby playing nations,
Australia and Namibia spring to mind. A couple of minutes later Pompey were
further in front, Caspall used Cameron as the pivot, took it back off him and
ran through three Bognor defenders, drawing the defence he passed to Nigel
Hodges who danced into the twenty-two passing to Kieran Godkin who scored to
the right of the posts, converted by his brother Sean the hosts eased into a
26-5 lead.
Portsmouth were running everything back at Bognor who were trying to make use
the wind whenever they could, they kicked well but Dave Ladd always collected
and made good ground on the counter-attack. On fifteen minutes Pompey found
themselves in their own half and should have cleared the danger easily but the
ball was spilled without the referees assistance this time and once again the
Bognor scrum-half was in, kicking the loose ball ahead and falling on it under
the posts, 26-12 and a commanding Portsmouth lead was being squandered away. On
twenty minutes, Portsmouth were once again running the ball back after a deep
Bognor kick, gifted the visitors another try, fly-half Leon Reilly must have
e-mailed his opposite number during the week to let him know about the pass he
was going to throw to him, it was duly intercepted and once again Bognor scored
under the Portsmouth posts, 26-19 and time for some strong words from the
skipper.
It was the skipper himself who steadied the ship, breaking from the base of the
scrum he passed to Dave Ladd who waltzed through to score under the uprights
and make it 33-19 after another Sean Godkin conversion.
The second half heralded the arrival of the first team coach Ian Chandler as an
interested spectator. Chalky White assumed he was the reason for the visit and
made sure he was close to where Beano was watching from the touchline. The
second period began much as the first with Portsmouth having the lions share of
the ball, the ball went through all the backs to Dave Ladd who collecting the
ball on the right wing then ran diagonally evading all tackles to score once
again between the sticks, Sean Godkin kicked through again and that made it
47-19. Dave Ladd then completed his hat-trick with a fine run from his own half
albeit unopposed, the score now 54-19.
Forty-three year old Gary Paxton was making his long overdue vets debut in the
front row and his height and strength in the line-out along with Happy Highgate
(in buoyant mood having already predicted a Welsh victory) was instrumental in
the amount of ball Pompey won.
This was enough for Borrowdale who then faked a hamstring tweak and left
the field to avoid scoring any more tries; Dean Fellows who had just finished
playing for the Vagabonds was grabbed on his way to the changing rooms to fill
in on the left wing and was very quickly in the action.
Moving into the final ten minutes the Bognor fly-half went surging down the
right wing and skipped through Chalky White's attempted tackle, but Fellows was
on hand with a crunching tackle to spare White's blushes. All this occurred right
in front of the first fifteen coach, "The Great White is Toothless"
was heard from the touchline along with Chandlers comment "he's not
impressing, not in the reckoning any more, I've seen enough".
Bruce Collins then got himself on the score sheet with a well taken try in the
right corner to make it 71-19 and quickly had to put himself about at the other
end when a Bognor attack almost made it to the try-line, the full-back was
clean through but Collins caught him five metres short with a tackle that ensured
Pompey didn't concede any more points in this match. Another brief attack was
quickly turned over by
The accusation from some that we are only playing the easy games was shrugged
off by Bungle, "these teams have to be beaten and a win is a win".