Santa’s Army defeated by Portsmouth

The game began with just 11 Gosport & Fareham players who all played in red, head coach Shane Field rebranding them as “Santa’s Army” but numbers were made up thanks to Portsmouth providing some of their players who swapped throughout the game. It started well for Portsmouth as they managed to score a try in the left corner without a successful conversion but good attempt 5-0.
Portsmouth got a penalty and kicked deep into to the corner, which they then went on to involve training ground moves at the lineout as they threw short so they could slip through the Gosport & Fareham defence and score another try. The conversion was missed 10-0 .Great support play from Portsmouth lead to them scoring again in the left corner and no conversion making it 15-0. Could the home team muster a fightback?
The restart went short and Ollie Walker took the ball deep into their 22. A high tackle by Joshua Morris meant Gosport & Fareham gave away a penalty and Portsmouth then went for a quick “tap and go” which lead to Portsmouth scoring their fourth try to lead 20-0 at half time.
Early after the restart Harvey Field chipped the ball over the Portsmouth defence and followed the ball but much to everyone’s disappointment, the referee didn’t award a try instead a 5 metre scrum under the sticks was given to Gosport & Fareham which they lost against the head which allowed Portsmouth off the hook deep on their own line.
Portsmouth capitalised on this, scoring again to make it 25-0. In the last few minutes a consolation score from Robert Ellis after intense home pressure which he then successfully converted to make the score 25-7. Portsmouth scored their sixth and final try after good support play down the middle to make the final score 30-7.
NGD