United Services Portsmouth v Gosport & Fareham A

On a sunny and breezy Sunday morning G&F U13s travelled across to HMS Temeraire to pit their skills against a bouyant US Portsmouth squad.
They played 3 separate 20 minute sessions with some excellent rugby being exhibited.

Session 1 was a close hard fought game as each team probed for weaknesses. Early exchanges were littered with penalties on both sides as players were either caught off side or off their feet in the tackle area. There were some notable attacking movements especially from the forwards, where Chris and the rest of the front row were starting to make an impact.

The game however remained scoreless until a driving maul and break from Connor allowed a well timed pass to create space for outside centre Jake Mosley to hit the gap at speed and stretch his legs to score. Unfortunately the conversion went slightly wide.

US came back strongly and there was good defense in evidence from the back row who quickly halted their advance. This led to a turnover and a 3 on 1 opportunity for our centers and full back - unfortunately US were equal to the attack and the chance went begging as we knocked on. This was the last notable play of the first session G&F running out 5:0 winners.

Session 2 saw some strong attacking play by US, notably from their number 10, leading to an overlap for their full back down the right wing - our own full back was up to the challenge, quickly dealing with the danger and bundling the attacker into touch.

Again a lot of play was between the forwards who were fronting up well to some large lads on the opposition. Special mention again goes to our props who were really making US work hard in the scrums. Most scrums in fact being won against the head!!
Our 2 centers combined well to release Connor on the left wing, who in cutting across the field led to a penalty being awarded for offside in front of the posts. This was dutifully dispatched to take Gos 3:0 into the lead. There was again tight play in the middle of the park, with US giving plenty to think about with their driving mauls. Connor made a number of breaks which could have come to something if he had more support around. Finally the forward pack gained real momentum, with number 4 James Rowe ploughing through for a well earned score. This was converted by Dids. Gos 8:0 to the good.

US came storming back, with Ethan tackling like a terrier in defence. Further opportunities came to both sides with a couple of clean line breaks, swiftly snuffed out by superb tackling and neither Gos (double movement on the try line) nor US could find a way past the white wash! Session 2 came to a close with an 8:0 win.

Session 3 started rather scrappily with a number of runners finding themselves with little support. This was soon to change, however, with the best move of the match - a strong scrum allowed Matty to pass the ball out to Matthew Symington, whose superb flat pass to Jake Mosley created a clean line break that enabled him to power half the length of the pitch to score under the posts! This was quickly converted and gave Gos the impetus to really rack up the pressure. Each
scrum was now going Gos way and also the tap penalties being awarded were allowing us to make real headroom as US regularly transgressed the 10 metre offside rule. It was from a series of these penalties that eventually we turned the ball over to US - their clearance kick was collected by Jake E from full back, who spotted the space to his left and drawing the defence gave a well timed pass to Matthew Symington to score in the corner. Unfortunately the conversion was missed, but this still meant that Gos had a 12:0 lead.

We were well in control by this stage and the whole team showed some good support play that led to the final try - a scorching run by new lad Sam who, having only played 3 games quickly showed everyone that he has real pace on the wing, leaving several US players in his wake to score near the right hand posts.Gos by this stage were worthy of their 17:0 win. A fantastic effort by all the lads, not only running through several team tries, but keeping a clean sheet!

(If only Martin Johnson had such determination in his squad!!) Well done Guys!!