Tough season opener for under 15s

A messy start to the season with fixtures being cancelled & rearranged all over the place, but Gosport & Fareham under 15s finally got the chance to put match shirts on this season against a traditionally strong Basingstoke outfit.

Conditions good, pitch great & ready to play rugby at last! In a tight affair from the start Basingstoke looked more match ready & opened the score after taking full advantage of the wind with some consistently good positional kicking putting them in the right areas. They were always on the attack in the first 20 minutes so the G&F boys did well to keep the score to 7 - 0. Playing the match in 3 20 minute sections enabled Basingstoke to play with the wind for the 1st & last thirds of the match but had G&F taken opportunities they could have put themselves in front. Instead, bad luck resulted in a yellow card during the 2nd period so in the final third we were always playing catch up.

Still, with the wind against them for most of the match & being a player down for 10 minutes in the only period they did have the wind at their backs, the difference in scores was only a conversion with the final third being played out at 14 - 12 to the home team. After what felt like the 100th penalty of the game, Basingstoke sensibly took the 3 point option a few minutes from time to put a 5 point cushion between the teams so the match ended 17 - 12 to Basingstoke.

One thing you can be guaranteed of is that Basingstoke are always going to put out a strong team & today was no exception. Overall though, despite isolated glimpses, it was a lacklustre performance by Gosport & Fareham compared to their usual sparkle but we'll blame that on the slow start to getting our first match & hope the cobwebs have ben blown away ready for the rest of the season.

Man of the match was awarded to Will Moulton on his debut for the A team this season so well done Will.