01 March 2008
Tottonians Vets 21 Pompey 14
An unprecedented third defeat in a row for
the Vets but this was a close encounter which went right to the wire with
an undeserving last gasp winner for the Hosts.
On arrival at the club for the meet it soon
became obvious that all was not well, Mike Caspall was frying his brain on his
cell phone desperately trying to summon a side together. With a bit of leaning
on fourth team skipper Rob Clark who is no pushover, Caspall
secured the services of centre Ant Undeck and Olly Vinall who wisely chose
to keep his career at Pall Europe on track by saying yes to Caspalls request
that he play for the vets. Missing were some influential players, Bungle who
has a knee injury, Geoff Bullard celebrating a milestone birthday while keeping
his distance from his team-mates and Roger Highgate who was shopping.
Highgates' absence meant that The Viking would have to play a whole
game. Other absentees were Paul Gandy, Bruce Collins, Dougie
Campbell and Mark Borrowdale all injured.
The "Flying Hearse" which
is Caspalls company car overshot the slip road (signposted TOTTON TOWN
CENTRE) through some wayward navigation from fly half Lewis "nah
you don't go into the town centre" but luckily Yorkie Smith knows the
area well and found us a short cut into a housing estate and the wrong end of
a one way street near Fawley, good ammunition for Dave Talt and the fines
bag.
With a stiff breeze in their faces Pompey kicked
off, Totts came at them and the defence held firm. Totts opted to use
the wind and kicked for position but Pompey ran the ball back. An interception
on halfway from a Totts player who looked slightly offside
but scored under the posts to give Tottonians a
7-0 lead without them looking convincing. A further score
on twenty-five minutes put them 14-0 ahead but Pompey with most of the
possession came back at them. Jonahs assistant caretaker friend Ant was taking
plenty of crash ball at inside centre which sucked in tacklers allowing Sean
Godkin room to run with the ball. On the half hour Pompey got
themselves on the scoreboard. Dave Harris the loosehead prop making
the touchdown, "It was a rolling maul up the right touchline.The
entire pack were involved except me. Caspall was sucked in to it. I had been
loafing about watching the proceedings in the hope of a spot of glory......When
I decided to pick the ball out of the back of the maul I had to travel
about…oh …2 feet."
The try from Haggis and Sean Godkin kicked
through to make it 14-7.
At this point Newsham (who'd touched the ball
once knocking on a forward pass from Caspall) left the fray when his old war
wound made a reappearance, Doug Elvy taking over on the
left wing.
Pressure from the Pompey backs gained plenty
of set plays from which the forwards set off on rolling
mauls, the hosts soon tired against this tide of black and gold. The
pack being led by Chalky were dominant, the front row of Haggis, Yorkie and
Irish Will, second row Jon Whitehouse on his return after international
and refereeing duties was hungry for the ball and the ultra
mobile back row of Vinall and Keiran Godkin gave the Totton
forwards plenty of problems but the half ended with Tottonians nearly
increasing their lead. A kick ahead and chase by the Totts centre, his
pass to the full back should have been a try-scoring one but Dave Ladd lined up
his tackle perfectly, the man and ball went down in a heap. Half time
14-7.
The second half opened up with Pompey receiving
the ball and once again powering into the Totton pack, their half-time
team-talk saw more players hanging out of the mauls but the possession was
still mostly with the visitors, Andy Lewis kicking well for position and
the forwards competing in the set plays.
Ten minutes into the half Totton went on a
run from a lineout, Haggis tried to bring down the ball carrier but
his flailing left arm caught the full force of the charging number 8 and
he left the field in search of painkillers, with no more replacements the hosts
lent Pompey a fat bloke and the game continued with two
competing front rows.
Right wing Nigel Hodges was next to
leave the field with a pulled hamstring, Newsham with his
back seized up was about to limp back on in his place but
thankfully a Totton replacement volunteered to make up Pompeys numbers.
Pompey continued to press for another
score and with fifteen minutes left a penalty ten metres inside the
Totts half saw the visitors elect to kick for goal. Sean Godkin cooly
stepped up but put the ball a foot wide of the right hand post.
Pompey were now in control and looking most
likely to score again, a succession of plays saw Portsmouth inside the
Totton twenty-two, ill discipline from the
Totts backs gave Pompey a penalty, sharp thinking from
number eight Olly Vinall who quickly tapped the ball and ran
in unopposed under the posts while the defence were all blaming each other
for the penalty, converted by Godkin the game was all set for a grand finale at
14-14.
With minutes remaining inside centre Ant went
on a break and looked like he may win the game for the visitors but
with no support was caught on the twenty-two by the hosts full back and
from the resulting scrum the hosts didn't manage to clear their lines,
Portsmouth pressure forced the Totts fly-half into panic and by not
releasing the ball gave Pompey a penalty. Godkin kicked for the corner and the
forwards trotted over for the line-out on five metres. Lewis
made the call to his backs and the ball was secured by the forwards, not
the rumble and drive this time but quick ball from Caspall to Lewis who
opted to miss out the inside centre and threw the pass to Godkin,
unfortunately the Tottonians full-back was stood in amongst the Pompey
three-quarters where he'd been hanging about most of the game, he snaffled
up the pass and charged the length of the field to score under the sticks,
not even the pace of Elvy could catch him and the resulting conversion made it
a cruel 21-14 defeat.
Simon Newsham