Southampton Vets 60 - 0 Gosport & Fareham 3s

With players pulling out at the last minute, Wayne Mackney was as surprised as anyone to find himself starting on the wing for the Vets. Jason Kehoe came in at fullback and Mick Jones made his first appearance of the season at hooker. Wayne Allen and Phill Trant were our late replacements.

The warm up saw the away team out 45 minutes before us and looking very keen and well-drilled. Our approach seemed lacklustre, which showed in the first ten minutes of the match as bad handling in the centres let Gosport off the hook on a couple of occassions.

But it was Southampton pack who set the standard with some awesome scrummaging. Phil Laycock destroyed his opposite number, creating a platform for Ian Duncan to get clean ball to feed eventual Man of the Match Neil Evans. He set up wave after wave of attacks for the centres and the wings, while Jason Kehoe came into many of the planned moves from fullback- and the scoring rout began. Touchdowns came from Pete Fox, Micky Jones, Ian Duncan and Alex Scott while Paul Rutheford gratefully added the extras.

The first half flew by and the whistle could not have come a minute earlier for Gosport, who were blown away by our strength and skill throughout the team. A couple of changes saw the first start of the season for Wayne Allen, replacing Phil Laycock and Phill Trant coming on for a run out.

Gosport started the second half with only pride to play for and did make a game of it, especially in the scrums. They manged to win a couple of their own balls but once Wayne Allen had warmed up, our pack dominated once again. The backs were spoilt with clean ball from Ian Duncan and the scoring continued, with Alex Scott adding a couple more. He then realised he was in the jug position and passed the ball to Neil Evans having already crossed the try line to score - a move worthy of winning the Toilet Seat award.

Gosport threatened our line twice, largely thanks to Mr Collingwood's generosity, but stern tackling made sure it was going to remain unbroken. A scrum in the middle of the park saw the move of the match, with the pack winning another against the head. Duncs fed Evans, who passed the ball to Neil Mcbride who sent the Gosport team in the wrong direction. The move was completed with Wayne Mackney (named Lomu for the day) taking two defenders towards the touch line leaving the hole for Jason Kehoe to go under the posts. A try from paul rutherford and his conversions saw the vets to an emphatic win 60-0.

(Thanks to Wayne Mackney for the match report)