Fine day of rugby spirit on field and off

Gosport & Fareham RFC Ravens (U14s) welcomed Woodford RFC U14's to Gosport Park for the first game of their Hayling Island Tour. Early rain dampened the pitch but the sunshine coast delivered with a beautiful day beside the creek to welcome our visitors. To emphasise the friendly welcome Ravens let Woodford score first after a very competitive first 5 minutes. Ravens then set about the task at hand and began to dominate and after several attacks found themselves 10m out with a penalty possession. Olly Webb tapped and passed to Euan Archbold as Samuel Rushent ran the decoy and Euan crashed over, Aidan Jarvis converted with an excellent kick from 6m in field. Two minutes later Ben Wheeler ran in his signature try from an angled run and then Samuel Rushent followed suit with a strong run that broke three tackles to make the line in a great outstretched arm. Connor Cox on the Wing was causing all sorts of trouble for Woodford and Gregor House on the other wing tackle any efforts they made to go wide.Ravens were dominating and Aidan Jarvis chipped over the backs and got lucky with a wicked bounce that beat the Full back and landed straight in his arms, he accelerated away from the covering tackles and scored under the posts and duly converted. Half Time 24-5 to Ravens.
Second half and Tom Ellis retired injured and was replaced at Inside Centre by Harry Rabjohn who then added 2 tries and a conversion in 6 minutes. Finlay Daly worked hard up front securing ball and was in the thick of it alongside Christian Osborne and Harry Freeman. Woodford grabbed another try but Ravens kept up the pressure and Outside Centre Mark Hearn and Full Back Jude Read added to the score sheet as the backs took charge of the game and were fed good ball by the hard working pack. Aidan Jarvis converted 4 of the tries for an impressive 17 point total for the day. Olly Webb at Scrum Half kept up the service from the breakdowns and substitutes didn't disrupt the teams play. Huw Bones, Riley Clarke, Kerr McCall, Joe Wilkinson, Ollie Olorenshaw and Kian Oakley all played their parts in a very balanced team performance. The opposition recognised Euan Archbold as player of the match and the Woodford coaches spoke very highly of the team performance and great hospitality shown by GFRFC. We wish them well for their second tour game at Trojans tomorrow.