7 December 2024 by Simon Newsham
A cold and very windy afternoon drew the smallest Rugby Camp crowd of the season so far, those who did brave the conditions were treated to a Pompey win but it definitely wasn’t a great game.
The hosts were quickly out of the blocks on two minutes with the best play of the match. Following a scrum on the left fifteen metres inside the Bognor half, George Wright fed fly-half Jas Solanki whose pass missed out centre Dalziel and found full-back Stewart Davies at speed, his pass to right wing Brad Jewer created the overlap for Jewer to run in and score in the right hand corner. Portsmouth had a good spell of possession in the first ten minutes but were unable to add to their early score. Anthony Fooks was having a busy day due to players going off for injuries he had to fill in at front row, second row, flank, No8 and did a superb job wherever he was sent.
The visitors grew into the game and after a spell of desperate defending against the wind by Portsmouth and repeated penalties for offside Bognor got their try on 24 minutes, as with the hosts they were unable to convert in the blustery conditions. The visitors finished the half strongly and Portsmouth conceded yet another penalty for offside in front of the posts on the twenty-two, the Bognor fly-half calmly slotted the three points to go in with a three point lead at half time Portsmouth 5 Bognor 8.
The second half began with both sides having a go but running into big tackles, the hosts No8 Aaron Beesley had plenty of carries but the Bognor defenders weren’t letting him make the ground we have come to expect from him. On 52 minutes Portsmouth were awarded a penalty for a rare Bognor offside on twenty-two meters, Stewart Davies struck it beautifully through the uprights to level things at 8-8.
Ten minutes later after some attritional rugby where nothing much happened in the middle of the pitch, the hosts broke forward from a Solanki kick ahead, chased down by replacement Luke Simmons bought some territory and a spell of pressure in the Bognor twenty-two. The visitors were under extreme pressure when Solanki burst away down the right wing only to be tackled high when it looked like he would score. A further penalty saw a Bognor player go to the bin when the hosts set themselves up for a tap and go penalty five meters out wide on the right. This time they chose the scrum option, the pack piled forward driving the visitors over their own line and Anthony Fooks dropped over for a crucial try. Superbly converted by Stewart Davies putting Pompey into a 15-8 lead with around eighteen minutes to go.
Portsmouth saw the game out with more tenacious tackling from Adam Parks-Dare, Henri Davies and Sam Foster to name a few. Bognor had a late flurry of possession but couldn’t break through the Pompey defence. This was Portsmouth’s fourth win on the bounce, it certainly wasn’t pretty but when you need the points to stay up, winning is all that counts especially when key players are missing.
Portsmouth Line Up 1 Liam Avis, 2 Brad Atkins, 3 Adam Parks-Dare, 4 James Hebbard, 5 Sam Foster, 6 Anthony Fooks, 7 Henri Davies, 8 Aaron Beesley, 9 George Wright, 10 Jas Solanki, 11 Harvey Field, 12 Sam Olie, 13 Will Dalziel, 14 Brad Jewer, 15 Stewart Davies, Reps Vinnie Jefferies, Lee Chandler, Luke Simmons.