Results

Counties 1 Hampshire Results

Sat 28 Mar 2026

Portsmouth RFC

22 – 31

(HT 12-24)

Basingstoke RFC Ltd

Portsmouth RFC

Substitutes

Basingstoke RFC Ltd

  • 15
    Paterson
  • 14
    Worsfold
  • 13
    Rowley
  • 12
    Rowley
  • 11
    Titcombe
  • 10
    Green
  • 9
    Kent-Jordan
  • 1
    Rushworth
  • 2
    Tala
  • 3
    Ansell
  • 4
    Rowley
  • 5
    Mairs
  • 6
    Siddall
  • 7
    Mairs
  • 8
    Treverton

Substitutes

  • 16
    Litchfield
  • 17
    Appleby
  • 18
    Taylor

Match Report

This was always going to be a hard match and so it proved. A good crowd braved the rather cold north westerly wind that cut across the pitch, but at least the rain stayed away.

Portsmouth got the match underway and soon had Stoke under pressure. From a penalty against Stoke, a kick to touch from Gareth Davies saw
Portsmouth with a line out around 7 metres from the try line, Securing good ball Portsmouth drove to the line and it was skipper Will Rolfe who broke off and charged his way over the line for the first try of the match. The conversion missed but they were in front after about 2 minutes 5-0.

This lead was rather short lived as Stoke soon hit back with a converted try to take the lead 5-7 after 7 minutes. This lead was increased further when they scored their second converted try making the score 5-14. Callum Grahamslaw then put in a good run side stepping his way towards the try line but eventually he got checked and lost the ball forward out of his carrying hand. A similar occurrence happened to Stoke when one of their players got challenged by a Portsmouth player and he also lost control of the ball.

Stoke increased their lead with a third converted try taking the score to 5-21. Portsmouth then managed to close the gap with a try by Ant Fooks following good work by Will Rolfe and Alex Buck. Davies was able to add the extras so the score was now 12-21. Jay Chatham was then yellow carded for a high tackle. A penalty against Portsmouth for not rolling away from the tackled player saw Stoke further increase their lead to 12-24. Half time came shortly after. Two of those tries came as a result of poor defending which was so annoying as usually their defence was very good. A lot of the first half also saw too many uncharacteristic mistakes which certainly didn’t help the Portsmouth cause.

The second half got underway with Portsmouth making changes, Tom Whitehouse came on for Sam Floyd, Adam Parks-Dare was on for Alex Buck and Brad Jewer was on for Jay Chatham. From a Portsmouth scrum in the Stoke 22 Portsmouth they spun the ball out wide and Tawanda Matipano took the final pass to score in the corner. The conversion missed and the gap was now 17-24 with 44 minutes gone.

Portsmouth were giving a better performance in the second half and were playing more in the Stoke half, helped no doubt by a combination of some good kicking with a following wind. Their efforts were well rewarded when Fooks ran through to score to the side of the posts. The conversion missed and the score was now 22-24 with about 6 minutes left, This was also their 4th try so yet another bonus point was achieved.

The Stoke restart went straight out then a Stoke lineout was pinged for not straight. From the scrum Portsmouth moved the ball to Davies and he attempted a miss-pass which unfortunately was rather telegraphed and Stoke were up so quickly they were able to intercept and with Portsmouth moving up to attack, the Stoke player had a clear run in under the posts for their 4th bonus point try taking the score to 22-31.

There was a bit of confusion in the Stoke team when they thought the game was over as they put the ball into touch but the Referee had other ideas. From the lineout Portsmouth tried to salvage something but the ball got into the hands of Stoke and this time as they kicked to touch the final whistle did go. Thus their unbeaten run of 12 games came to a disappointing end. The last try was rather against the run of play in the second half especially when they had got the score back to 22-24, but that is sport for you.

Portsmouth still remain top of the league but with Bognor beating Gosport & Fareham 77-17 they are in second place and now only 3 points behind us and Bognor is the next fixture in 2 weeks time at their ground. All to play for then, it would be great to see good Portsmouth support on the touch line for this fixture. There is a break next week.

Other results
Andover lost to Sandown & Shanklin 28-29, Andover are now 4th.and Sandown & Shanklin are 5th. Chichester had a home walk over against Eastleigh and Guernsey 2nds beat Winchester 2nds 48-22.

TEAM
WILL ROLFE, BRAD ATKINS, ALEX BUCK
SAM FOSTER, ELLIOTT WORRALL
HENRI DAVIES, SAM FLOYD, ANT.FOOKS
DOM VUGLER, GARETH DAVIES
CALLUM GRAHAMSLAW, SAM OLIE, LEO WALL, JAY CHATHAM
TAWANDA MATIPANO
BENCH
ADAM PARKS-DARE, TOM WHITEHOUSE, BRAD JEWER