Southampton 2s v US Portsmouth 2s

We’re back!

After six weeks without a game the 2s finally managed to get playing again. Saturday’s game was against US Portsmouth and the last time we played them in the league we went down there with only 10 players… but things were a bit different this time. It had been a long layoff but we soon got back into the swing of things, with Ryan Keary making good use of his boot to give us lots of yardage.

We had a good side out and soon started to shake off the cobwebs. Set plays were going well for the forwards and the backs were running good lines. New recruit Bunny was coming off his wing to provide the extra man, which kept the opposition pegged in their half. We got a break in midfield and Doddsy picked a good angle, skirted past a few of their players and ran in a good try. Ryan made the conversion look easy. A little while later Jeffers found another good line and cut through to score, with Ryan again putting the ball between the posts.

It wasn’t all Saints though. At one stage US Pompey were putting us under a lot of pressure on our 5 metre line but we defended well. When they got a penalty 5 metres out, we still kept them out with an excellent team effort.

In the second half we needed to tighten our grip on the game and put the squeeze on them but much of the game was being fought out in midfield. There seemed to be a breakdown every minute and it was scrum, lineout, scrum and so on. It was at a lineout when Ben Vine got all fired up with the opposition Captain and had to leave the field for 10 minutes to dry his eyes and wipe his nose on the advice of the referee. To be fair to Ben his nose was a little bloody.

The game moved on and the ball was punted forward with Doddsy giving chase. With 10 metres to go he was pulled down without the ball- “Penalty try!” came the shout from the home side and the crowd, but the ref saw things differently. Instead their player got 10 minutes and we got the penalty. Dan Williams popped it to Mark Mauger who bounced off a few players and went over for the try, leaving an easier conversion for Ryan this time.

We were leading 24-0 at this stage and all was well. But in the final 10 minutes we relaxed too much, missed tackles and let them in for their first try. Then only two minutes later, after a scrappy lineout, the ball was on the floor and unfortunately for Ben he popped it back and one of their players (who wasn’t offside for some reason) caught it a ran over for their second.

All in all though, it was a very good team performance – especially after such a long lay off. Well done lads!