Saxons Shine Against Alton Black On The Coldest Day

After defeat in the Hampshire Cup Quarter-Finals to Winchester, today was a chance for the Saxons to play their style of rugby, put their training into practice and know what it feels like when your game goes well. Right from the beginning and the first scrum, Alton were under pressure. Gosport made breaks, supported well, rucked strongly and knew when to back themselves and when to pass the ball. For the first time in ages, the wingers were getting the ball in space and were able to attack and turn the defence.

An early Jack Adams try settled the nerves and the Saxons were quickly 3 tries up. Alton fought back and scored from a quick penalty because the Saxons did not get back, ready to defend. The Saxons gathered themselves and settled back into scoring. These were good tries, built around players taking the ball forwards, giving it something, and then passing it on. Gosport fought for the ball and won it. The pack were particularly impressive, dominating the scrums and then rucking quickly and strongly. They were taking the ball forwards with good body positions, looking after the ball and laying it back. The backs were having a field day, running great lines and passing down the line. Josh West was particularly dynamic in the first half and scored, Reece Hunter showed what he was capable of with a fast strong run, I thought he was going to score his first international try but he was held out and the ball was won again and finished by Jamie Stephenson. Ollie picked a great line for a devastating run to crash over.

Alton bounced back in the second half and showed some aggression, but the Saxons held firm and normal service resumed.

Jack added three more tries to his tally, but now the forwards wanted some of the action. A lovely weighted pass from Jack to Ashley McMahon Williams on the gallop set up a great mismatch on the wing and Ashley showed great pace and determination to finish an excellent try. Not to be out done, Rob made some fantastic breaks and difficult runs before he finally shrugged off the defence and crashed over for two very strong tries. He earned the respect of Alton and they nominated him their Gosport Man of the Match. Well done.

The two wingers showed real pace and strength with two excellent 'wingers tries' from James Diamond and Ben Brooker. Both required hand-offs, sidesteps, power, pace and aggression and you looked really hard to stop, well done.

There were some other notable performances; Tom Wilson for some big strong tackling, ball carrying and work rate in the rucks – a power house; Ben P, Connor and Alfie for good hooking, Alfie for his massive work rate and rucking (would have been PoW if it was a Saxon selection); James Taylor and Toby Todd for winning and cleaning up rubbish ball and setting up the next attacking phase; Matthew C for digging the ball out of the rucks and being a good sniping scrum-half; Andrew Gamble for standing up to the Alton winger and getting a hand to him every time and slowing him up so he could be tackled, he was slippery, well done.

The Saxons played exciting rugby with forwards and backs working well. They played with confidence and it showed; everyone contributed.

Thank you to Richard Thomas for refereeing, it was a very professional performance and yet another Club were very impressed that we have Youth referees officiating to a high standard.

Well done Saxons!