Gosport & Fareham v Reading Abbey (Friendly)

A great day with ideal rugby conditions greeted both teams at the Gosport & Fareham RFC.

Bruce Carle (Head Coach), Gary Middleton (Backs), John Robertson (Forwards) & Andy Meachen (Forwards) took the warm up, set piece and handling drills before retiring to the changing room for the teams final preparations.

Tim Bailey (Hampshire & RN Referee) was in the middle for the game.

The first breakdown set the physical tome for the game with both teams giving no quarter.

Gosport opened their account not long after the first set of rucks with Liam Capper breaking away to go in under the posts. Tim Kadavu converted to give Gosport a 7point lead.
A breakaway try from Grant Hill extended the lead with Tim adding the extra points. On the half hour mark George Crouch burst through holding off two tackled to score under the posts, making it easy for Tim to bring the score to 21-0.

Reading cam back at Gosport strong and forced Gosport's defence to make one too many mistakes at the breakdown. After repeated calls from the referee a yellow card was issued for repeated team infringements.

Gosport held out with Liam Capper again breaking away after a well worked backs move off the base of a breakdown, again, Tim converted. This ended the half with Gosport at 28-0.

Reading Abbey came out after the break with relentless power in their forward pack putting a very quick 7 points on the board.
Once again a break from the Gosport mid-field created the opportunity for Liam Capper to take a simple pop-pass to score under the posts, 33-7.

With changes to positions at half-time Reece Walters cleaned up at a breakdown, taking the opportunity of a clear blindside and scoring from Readings 10metre line, under the posts.
Less than 4 minutes later a turn over ball allowed Reece to clean up and sprint in under the posts, making the score 47-7.

Reading Abbey refused to lay down, using a powerful forward pack to drive into a resolute Gosport defence with swift dividends, scoring an unconverted try.
Once again Reading used their forwards to good effect with Gosport holding strong. However, further pressure produced a further yellow card for team infringements at the breakdown. Reading capitalised with a converted try in the dying minutes.

The final whistle being blown with Gosport running in winners at 47-17.