What a weekend at Rugby Camp. On Friday night Portsmouth Vets travelled to Petersfield to play their Vets and ran out comfortable winners 7-38.
On Saturday Portsmouth had 3 senior men’s teams in action plus the Valkyries 2nd XV playing Swanage & Wareham also at home, running out winners 38-19. And then as if that wasn’t enough, Portsmouth held their annual Octoberfest at the Club in the evening with about 120 attending.
The Valkyries kicked off at 12.30p.m. with the Men’s 1’s starting at 1 o’clock. Then the 2nds & 3rds started when those games had concluded.
Portsmouth got their game underway and they soon put pressure on the Guernsey line. A good passing move came to nothing when the final pass didn’t quite make it to the receiver and the ball got knocked on, giving a scrum to Guernsey. They secured the ball and a kick upfield saw them in the Portsmouth half for the first time after about 12 minutes of play. Following another penalty against Portsmouth, the decision was queried and they were marched back a further 10 metres.
This put them in kicking range and they secured the first points of the game giving them a 0-3 lead on 20 minutes. 10 minutes later, Guernsey added a further 3 points to their score following a penalty against the home side. The score was now 0-6. Portsmouth were soon setting up attacks of their own and a good run by centre Will Dalziel saw him just tackled into touch about 5 metres out from the try line. Good possession by Portsmouth saw them spin the ball from left to right and the ball eventually found its way to Beesley who crossed out wide for the first try of the match. The conversion just fell short and the score was now 5-6 with about 35 minutes gone. The half time whistle went shortly after but not before Portsmouth lost Solanki to a yellow card for offside.
The second half got underway and Guernsey were soon pressing the Portsmouth try line especially as they were against 14 players. Poor tackling
by Portsmouth rather let Guernsey score their first try out wide. The conversion missed and the score was now 5-11 with about 43 minutes on the clock. Portsmouth then made a change with Henri Davies coming off to be replaced by Lee Chandler. Chandler went to 6 with Foster moving across to 7. This was followed shortly after with Harvey Field coming off. He was replaced by Matt Higgins. Portsmouth were then back to a full complement when Solanki came back on having served his 10 minutes.
Shortly after Portsmouth set up another good attacking move that saw the ball moved well from one touch line to the other with Matt Higgins finally crossing for a try. Solanki was on target and Portsmouth now found themselves ahead with the score 12-11 on about 50 minutes. Shortly after, Fooks came off to be replaced by Louis Bristow in the front row. From a Guernsey attack Dalziel put in a good tackle but got caught on his forehead by the boot of the tackled player. As a result he had to leave the field. He was replaced by Harvey Field.
With a penalty against Portsmouth, Guernsey put pressure on the Portsmouth try line and eventually crossed for a converted try taking back the lead 12-18 on about 70 minutes. 5 minutes later they extended that lead with a penalty making the score 12-21 with about 5 minutes remaining. Another penalty against Portsmouth saw Guernsey extend their lead to 12-21. Portsmouth then seemed to get a bit more energy to their play as time was running out. Another good move saw the ball passed to Charlton who with little room to move managed to dot down with out going into touch. The conversion missed and the score was now 17- 21 at least giving them a valuable bonus point, as the final whistle went.
This was a very disappointing result, especially after the display of last week. The game was rather loose and unstructured. The Portsmouth pack were again up against much heavier opponents with meant they were often winning ball but going backwards which put the backs under pressure. The handling and passing in the backs was also at times rather poor with dropped or missed catches.
This result sees them stay in 11th place with 7 bonus points. New Milton, their next opponents in 2 weeks time are 12th on 4 bonus points. They lost to Ellingham & Ringwood 84-0. With next week a rest week, hopefully it will give those players with injuries, time to recover.
TEAM
LIAM AVIS, BRAD ATKINS, ANT FOOKS
MATT HOBAN, BRYN RAINFORD
SAM FOSTER, HENRI DAVIES, AARON BEESLEY(C)
GEORGE WRIGHT, JAS SOLANKI
LEO WALL, SAM OLIE, WILL DALZIEL, CONNOR CHARLTON
HARVEY FIELD
BENCH
LOUIS BRISTOW, LEE CHANDLER, MATT HIGGINS