Gosport & Fareham B v Salisbury B

The weather conditions were inclement at Gosport Park for both teams, with cold blustery winds. Gosport and Fareham started the match in attacking form playing into the wind, having trained and warmed up for the first hour. The boys were unlucky not to go two tries up as Chris Wallis and Darren Jones both went over the try line only to be held up by strong resistance from the Salisbury pack. Despite Gosport and Fareham having 60% of the possession and 70% of the territory in the Salisbury half, the Salisbury team took full advantage of the tail wind and went two tries up by half time (one converted), with astute kicking by their shrewd fly half. Although, the weather dictated a very forwards dominated game, the backs made good use of the ball they got, with determined performances by Cameron Hollings at scrum half, able support from Bradley Cummings with Hugo Marshall and Joe Bunn in the centres. Even the two wings, Ollie Nichols and Jake Buckley were given space and time to demonstrate their flare.
In the second half, Gosport and Fareham came back with avengance, having had a stiff half time team talk from their coach, Andrew. True grit up front paid off, when Chris Wallis went over for the first of his brace of tries, after the front 8 tore valuable possession from the Salisbury forwards. This was very nearly converted by Bradley. Two shrewd substitutions brought first Paddy Clements on, and then Jake Buckley back on, both of whom worked hard to play their part with passion. Scott Craik, playing second row, made a break from his own twenty two, feeding his centres, but the ball went down, after some inventive passing provided open space, and an overlap. With minutes to go, Chris struck again blazing a path through the stricken defences of the green and whites, planting the ball under the posts. Alas, the conversion went wide leaving Gosport and Fareham two points adrift. Excellent running rugby by Chris Wallis (a deserved man of the match), Dan Duncum, Scott Craik, and Dave Wallis, who had refereed with care and discipline blew up before the boys could finish with another try. The end result was unjust for Gosport and Fareham, who really deserved at least a draw.

Match report by Ben Marshall.