A second half hat-trick of trys from winger Jahray Rodelana saw Gosport & Fareham come from behind and get their first win of the season against Andover RFC.

It was definitely a “game of two halves” on a sunny, but typically windy autumn afternoon at Gosport Park and, with the wind at their backs, Andover made the most of their large pack. They opened the scoring on 9 minutes with a penalty and then following scrum half Joe Collard’s yellow card, Andover scored a converted try to lead 0 – 10 at half time.

Gosport went into the changing rooms at the break, regrouped and immediately came out a different side having realised that their strength was in moving the ball wide. Within a minute of the restart, wing Kieran Darrington ran under the posts following a break from centre Calum Griffith. Shortly after, prop Jordan Carter showed a turn of speed after breaking through to score a second for Gosport, Dom Holling adding the extras on each occasion for Gosport to take the lead in the match.

The ill discipline shown in the first half by Gosport however continued into the second resulting in Andover reducing the deficit by three points before Gosport’s backs started to move the ball wide and Rodelana ran over for the first of his three trys.

Andover again closed the gap on Gosport’s lead with a run-in try on 53 minutes but that was to be their last points of the day. Rodelana extended the lead and scored his second with Holling adding further Gosport points with a penalty. The match was finally secured in time added on as Rodelana went over to claim his third try of the day to make the final score 32 – 18.

Despite the welcome win it wasn’t all smiles at full time as head coach George Hillan explained. “we are taking the positive feelings from this win however we know that we need to change our on-field discipline as we can’t sustain giving away 10 penalties in each half. It took until the second half for us to look up and play what was in front of us and realise that our strength was in our backs who played really well today. It was telling that we ran in 5 trys and could have had more. I am delighted though with the bonus point win and we’ll take this this forward, focussing on the areas to develop further”.

Gosport will be hoping to take the winning feeling into the next match which is again at home to Warlingham on 26th October.