New Milton & District v Saints

New Milton got off the mark early, with their full back slotting away two penalties to punish Saints' discipline around the ruck. They also put the Saints' line out under considerable pressure from the start, prompting Marcus Coffin to make an "inspirational captaining decision" by shortening the line. This shored things up before Dave Griffiths made great distance from a penalty, to give a good attacking platform on the New Milton 22.

The ball was spun out through the backs and when Jason Kehoe cleverly drew his man out of position, Dave Ward - sporting an utterly ridiculous beard - rounded his man to touch down for the game's first try. The conversion didn't go over but Saints were off the mark.

But that was Southampton's only try in what became a fairly dismal first half for them. New Milton had some quick runners out wide and they exploited gaps in the visitors' defence to rack up tries of their own. The home side also benefited from some close refereeing calls; noteably when a crossfield kick expertly picked out a winger who seemed to have been in front of the kicker. He had the space and speed he needed to round the Saints' defence and then when a promising Southampton attack was intercepted for yet another try, a cricket score looked possible.

The second half started much the same, with New Milton making the most of some poor drift-defending to create a simple overlap, which took the home side over the thirty point mark. When the New Milton scrum half then snuck round the side of a maul to cause Paul Brant to knock on, he picked up the bobbling ball and broke through the Saints defence to increase the lead.

But with the game seemingly out of reach, Southampton suddenly turned the match on its head. James Parks replaced Jason Kehoe at right wing and immediately set about running at New Milton. After his break, the ball was recycled infield before outside centre Josh popped up in support, wriggled through the defence and touched down for Saints' second try. This was his last involvement in the game though, as soon after he took a blow to the head and was substituted. Some reorganisation saw Ben Peter move to inside centre, with Ward moving to outside. Although it was an enforced change, Ben's solid head-down style of running made good ground up the middle of the pitch. He was involved in the game's next try too, when he boldly ignored a three man overlap to go himself. He was tackled a yard short of New Milton's line but the ludicrously hirsute Ward was on hand to pick up and dive over.

When Paul Brant then chased a chip from Alex Scott, he gathered the ball and dodged though the defence to add yet another Southampton try. New Milton's heads were firmly down and they looked in real danger of losing this tie. Time was against Saints but they refused to give up. With seconds remaining the ball was shipped out left, where flanker Rob Greenaway was lurking on the wing. He then produced possibly the moment of the match when he flung an audacious dummy that Jeremy Guscott would have been proud of. The defender fell for it and Rob stepped through the gap for a great try.

But the clock saved New Milton as the conversion was the last kick of the game. The final score was 42-32 and New Milton had won, but surely if the game had been ten minutes longer, things would have been very different.

The Bonding Bus then wound a magical mystery tour back via some unsuspecting village pubs to Casa Long where a magnificent feast awaited- courtesy of Denise. Huge thanks to her for that! The game may have ended in a disappointment, but a great evening rounded-off a superb team effort.