Results

Counties 1 Hampshire Results

Sat 21 Mar 2026, 15:00

Gosport & Fareham RFC Ltd

25 – 35

(HT 0-0)

Portsmouth RFC

Gosport & Fareham RFC Ltd

  • 15
    Darrington
  • 14
    Emtage
  • 13
    Holling
  • 12
    Scott
  • 11
    Grice
  • 10
    Brockhurst
  • 9
    Gee
  • 1
    Woodside
  • 2
    Snowden
  • 3
    Carter
  • 4
    Jelley
  • 5
    Hill
  • 6
    Poole
  • 7
    Stillion
  • 8
    Trivett

Substitutes

  • 16
    Peploe-Williams
  • 17
    Rodelana
  • 18
    Doyle

Portsmouth RFC

Substitutes

Match Report

Portsmouth, after the disappointment of last week’s loss to Basingstoke in the Cup Semi-Final, the first loss after 12 consecutive league wins, very much wanted to get back to winning ways again. Gosport away is not always the easiest place to win away from home but they showed that they were very capable of doing just that with a 5 tries to 4 win, the biggest difference being Portsmouth’s conversion of all 5 tries by Gareth Davies against Gosport’s 1 conversion and a missed penalty.

Gosport got proceedings underway and within 5 minutes had taken an early lead with a penalty after Portsmouth had transgressed, giving them a 3-0 lead . Portsmouth, from a lineout, took the ball through Brad Atkins who made ground before passing to Alex Buck who scored out wide. Gareth Davies was on target with the conversion and they were now in the lead 3-7 after 10 minutes. With about 10 minutes of the half left Portsmouth extended their lead following a move which saw the ball being passed to Callum Grahamslaw on the wing, and he managed to step his way through about 3 defenders before accelerating away to score under the posts. Davies was again on target with the conversion and the lead was now 3-14.

Gosport then showed they could also score tries when they touched down twice in fairly quick succession, the first was converted, the second came as a result of an intercept which saw them score close to the posts but the conversion missed. This saw them retake the lead 15-14. Portsmouth were soon back on the attack when from a quickly taken tap penalty by Will Rolfe the ball got moved to Sam Olie, who despite the attention of 2 Gosport defenders, managed to drive over the line and again Davies obliged with the conversion taking the score to 15-21 as the half time whistle went.

The second half started with Portsmouth making three of changes, Brad Jewer on for Callum Grahamslaw, Elliott Worrall for Bryn Rainford, and John Pearson on for Alex Buck. Next on the score sheet was Jay Chatham who following a good backs move, took the final pass and still with a bit of work to do, outpaced the opposition to run round and dot down under the posts. Davies was again on target and Portsmouth now took the lead 15-28. This was the fourth try giving them that all important bonus point.

From a scrum close to the Portsmouth try line, Gosport broke open and scored their 3rd try taking the score to 20-28. Shortly after this they missed a penalty from in front of the posts. As the game was drawing to a close, skipper Will Rolfe took a quick tap penalty and drove for the line with defenders hanging on as he touched down for their 5th.try. Again Davies was on target and the score was now 20-35. Gosport had the last say with a try in the dying minutes taking the final score to 25-35.

This result was perhaps closer than it should have been but as Steve Cameron said after the game, any win here is a good win!
Next week sees Portsmouth take on Basingstoke in what promises to be a very hard close fought match.
Portsmouth on 75 points, still have a 7 point lead over second place Bognor who beat Eastleigh 8-50. Basingstoke are third after defeat by Andover 28-37. They are on 62 points. Andover are 4th. on 59 points

TEAM
WILL ROLFE(C). BRAD ATKINS, LIAM AVIS
SAM FOSTER, BRYN RAINFORD
ALEX BUCK, SAM FLOYD, ANT.FOOKS
DOM VUGLER, GARETH DAVIES
CALLUM GRAHAMSLAW, SAM OLIE, LEO WALL, JAY CHATHAM
MATT HIGGINS

BENCH
JOHN PEARSON, ELLIOTT WORRALL. BRAD JEWER