Vikings Gold and Blue teams go forwad

A TEAM IS BORN:

With one eye on the Emerging Teams competition at Winchester next week Gosport Gold impressed with their huge effort and and massive strides in teamwork, communication and determination.
With all players playing in two tiring warm up games before the main games, all involved needed to work hard as a team in order to compete against the other two more experienced sides; this they did admirably, throughout and to the final whistle on each of their hard fought games.

Gosport Gold V Tottonnians:

From the outset Gosport showed their intent to run at the Tots defence, in the first minute some great passing out of the tackle from Olivia, Joseph and Jamie lead to Ciaran receiving the ball in space, allowing him to set off on a long arcing run which resulted in in a try in the corner.
Tots came back strongly and despite some great tackling from Jamie and Dylan amongst others, they managed to equalised.
The game continued in a similar fashion, with Tots just gaining the upper hand with the efficiency of their tackling to take a a 4-3 lead at half time.

Gosport regrouped with the second half starting much as the first had, with Gosport showing their new found ability to shout for the ball allowing Bailey to burst through a couple of tackles to score.
Gosport matched Tots in all aspects of attack and continued to progress with further tries from Ciaran and Marcus. Tots only gained an edge with their aggressive tackling that allowed them to take advantage of turnover ball to score two late tries.

Final Score: Gosport 6 - Tots 7

Gosport Gold V New Milton:

This New Milton side were clearly a very experienced side with a good number of strong runners and confident tacklers throughout the team, but instead of crumbling, Gosport steeled themselves and produce one of the best and bravest performances I have seen. I witnessed personal best performances from Hans, Olivia, and Marcus, who continued to attempt tackles despite facing a more experience opposition. The half time score was 4-2 to New Milton with Gosport tries coming from Ciaran and Bailey.

The second half could easily have started with Gosport a man down after Marcus took a painful blow to the nose, but after taking a moment, the Capt for the day came and rejoined his team for the second half. This was just as well as it allowed Marcus to score the team try of the day. After a tackle by Ciaran, the ball came loose and was gathered by Olivia who passed the ball to Dylan, he charged powerfully at the New Milton defence, breaking the first tackle and then offloading from the tackle to Joseph who made great pass to Jamie. Jamie popped the ball up from the ground allowing Bailey to set off on another of his weaving runs. Tackled just short of the line and unaware of where his support was, in came Marcus with a great shout for the ball, allowing Bailey to provide a sweet pass for Marcus to score. I didn't see a better try all day.

New Milton came back strongly easily running two tries through our defence, the same speedy elusive player scoring both tries. I have seen side just give up at this stage, but not this Gosport side. The last 5 minutes were spent with every player putting in tackles, Joseph and spent this time running from one tackle to another. Jamie (Arnold?) was like a terrier and a real thorn in New Milton's side, with Hans providing a fine display of determination. Ciaran, and Olivia also showed real bravery in attempting tackles that they may have previously shied away from. Marcus lead by example, harassing the New Milton players whenever he could. If there was an award for the "Tackle Monster" it would have to go to Dylan who tackled himself to a standstill and worked so hard not only in defence but also with his strong running with the ball. An example of the great effort shown by the entire team.

Final Score Gosport 4 - New Milton 8

Bailey
Ciaran
Dylan
Hans
Olivia
Marcus
Joseph

Very proud of the team's display and look forward to the Winchester event.

SOME OF THE BEST RUGBY I'VE EVERY SEEN

Before I go into the match reports, the coaches and Manager were very proud of how well behaved and disciplined the Vikings players were at New Milton, they certainly showed Totton and New Milton how it should have been done.

Gosport Blues 5 - New Milton B 2

As I have relayed to the players, they consistently played some of the best rugby I have seen at any junior level and their courage in defence and teamwork in attack were evident over both matches.

The Blues started strongly against a 'big' (sized) New Milton side, it was pleasing to see, that every time a New Milton player got the ball, they were brought to ground by, on most occasions, by two Gosport tacklers (hunting in pairs). That said there were also some fine individual tackles made. Normally I'd go on at this point to highlight those who had tackled above and beyond, however there is no need to do this, as this week ALL players stepped up to the mark and tackled ferociously.

Another week where the referee opted to play the 7 tackle and turnover rule, which due to the strength of the Blues defence actually played into our hands, Gosport tackling the opposition out on 3 occasions.

In attack the Blues were decisive in the offload and passed the ball well through the team, Jack Arnold opened up the scoring receiving the ball 15 metres out and then wrong footing the defence with a series of sidesteps to cross the try line. The second try saw Stanley Civil make a fast break down the left hand wing and cut back in field to avoid going into touch, as he was tackled by the NM defenders, he passed the ball superbly on his way to ground. Ben Coleman ran onto the pass at pace and cut the remaining defenders in half to ground the ball.

Third try was a superb solo effort by George Middleton, who received the ball just beyond the halfway line and weaved his way around 3 or 4 of the NM defence to score. The final try of the first half was scored right on the half time whistle, the play was slow as it moved within 10 meters of the New Milton line, then Jamie Ryan saw a gap, took the ball from the tackle and crashed through to score.

Half time and Gosport Blues had scored four tries without response.

In the second half, New Milton came out revitalised, obviously not used to being kept out of the game as they had been during the first 10 minutes. Once again the Gosport tackling was superb, however as confidence grew the blues players started to edge towards making solo tackles, this allowed one of the bigger NM players to break a tackle 5 metres from the Blues try line to score their first try.

There then followed a period where both sides cancelled each other out, Gosport were still supporting well, but failing to move the ball quickly enough away from the breakdown, allowing NM to make easy static tackles. As the game moved to a close, Gosport started to play with some width again and this led to George Middleton's second try. New Milton responded with another try before the final whistle.

Gosport Blues 3 - New Milton A 1

The second game of the day saw the Blues come up against NM A, a side who have won the County Tournament on numerous occasions and winners of last years Havant Tournament. If anything this team was bigger than the B side if that was at all possible and it became quite clear from the outset that they clearly had one big crash player that was used to getting the ball and breezing through defences. Unfortunately for NM they hadn't accounted for the tenacity of a Blues side who were on a high after their first game and the ferocity of the tackling they were about to face against our boys.

The game became one of attrition with scoring opportunities hard to come by, both defences going all out. The first try came for the Blues when Stanley Civil received the pass as he looped around the line at pace and had enough gas to go wide of the defence and score in the top corner.

Shortly after, even with the Blues defence unfaltering NM managed to cross the line to even the scores. Undeterred Gosport came straight back, this time through some strong running by Tom Robertson, he received the ball from the restart and broke through three New Milton tackles to crash over the line.

Half time Gosport were 2 - 1 up.

The second half saw the quality of the tackling increase by both teams. Blues players were going down with injuries due to their commitment in the tackle, but not wanting to let NM into the game or let their team-mates down they shrugged them off and got back on the with play as soon as they could.

The majority of the second half failed to see either side gain an upper hand and NM quickly realised that it was easier to try and force the Gosport attackers into touch than have to deal with them in the full tackle. Gosport pressed forwards and the game came to a stop after a NM high tackle which gave the Blues a full 7 tackles with only 15 metres to the NM try line. By now NM had three players down injured after trying to fend off the relentless Gosport attack. The ball was passed off from the penalty and as the first tackle went in, it was off loaded to Tom Robertson who made a decisive break and shrugged off two defenders to score the final try of the game.

The referee who was New Milton's Mini - Youth chairman commented that the Blues were the most organised team he'd seen all season. Some very proud coaches and parents today.

Blues Squad:
George Middleton
Jamie Ryan
Jamie Palmer
Max Paltrow
Stanley Civil
Jack Arnold
Ben Coleman
Tom Robertson

Many Thansk to John Roberston and Andy Meachen for the top rated reports.