Despite the 53-17 scoreline there were still a number of positives coming out of Gosport & Fareham’s away trip to Old Tonbridgians according to head coach George Hillan.

Team availability was once again an issue with management having to phone around at 9:45 to try and enrol players, ready to leave on the coach at 10:15. This obviously disrupted pre-match routines and set-ups and as a result the Gosport players struggled immediately from the kick off.

Within two minutes, Old Tonbridgians kicked to the corner and then drove a maul over the line which was converted. Four minutes later Dom Holling reduced the gap to four points with a penalty following a deliberate knock on that could, on another day, have resulted in a penalty try and a card for the home team.

Within 5 minutes however Old Tonbridgians had responded with two further tries taking the score to 19-3 before Daniel O’Donoghue (Chunk) scored his first ever try for Gosport which was converted by Dom Holling.

The rest of the first half was all the home team’s though scoring another four tries leaving the half time score 36:10.

The half time team talk was a realistic one. The game looked to be lost but there were three targets for the team to achieve. Up the intensity levels, tighten up on defence and also try and score three more tries to get the all important bonus point.

It looked like George’s words had the right effect as within 4 minutes of the restart Simon Trivett stormed over following a sustained period of pressure, Holling again converting the extras. The levels had indeed increased but despite this the home team still managed to run in a further two tries to make up the scoreline. Despite that, two of the three half time targets had been achieved.

George Hillan was also still impressed with the dedication and efforts of those that had turned out for the blue & golds. “they never gave up and worked as hard as they could until the very end!”

The next two weeks are at Gosport Park. Let’s give the guys plenty of support as they try and end 2018 in style.