Game of two halves

On a beautiful sunny day the Ravens travelled to Sandown & Shanklin RFC to play Vectis U15s. On a very bumpy pitch with very thick grass the going was soft and difficult to get up to speed. Both sides started well in a very balanced 10 minutes of play before Ben Wheeler ran in the first try for Ravens, and Aidan Jarvis converted. Another 10 minutes of balanced play where handling errors by Vectis saw them not capitalise on possession or the speed of their winger who was closed down well by Aaron Spiteri on the Ravens wing. Harry Rabjohn kicked to the corner and chased to close down the fullback and win the ball back at the tackle. He then broke three tackles to make the line and again Aidan Jarvis kicked the extra points. Ravens began to dominate and despite the heavy going the backs ran in two more tries from centre Ethan Hammond and fly half Aidan Jarvis; both went unconverted and the half time score was 24-0 to Gosport & Fareham Ravens.
Ravens scored early in the second half with another try from Aidan Jarvis but then the game changed. The defence of the Ravens fell apart as tackles weren't made. Good kick off and kick chases were wasted by letting the receiver run back rather than make a tackle. Vectis ran in two good tries and were back in the game. Euan Archbald was tackling everything in front of him with his usual full on hard hits, Harry Rabjohn now at Full Back made repeated last man tackles to deny them more scores and Gregor House was tackling well above his height and weight but they couldn't cover the whole pitch. Johnnie Lewis crashed over or the short side of the ruck and the conversion was good from Aidan Jarvis to bring up his personal tally to 16 points. Ravens wasted a couple of overlaps by not making the passes and Vectis never gave up. With the core defence gone missing for Ravens, and good supporting runs from the Vectis players, the last ditch tackles were overwhelmed and Vectis scored two good end of game tries to win the second half 26-12, but the final score was 36-26 to Ravens.
Some great attacking play from Ravens but a lot of work to be done on individual players committing to make tackles, hold a defensive line and put away 3 on 1 opportunities before next weeks league match.
Aaron Spiteri's work on the wing was recognised with a man of the match award and Olly Webb, Johnnie Lewis and Ben Gray showed how far their game has come.