Similar to 2 weeks ago when the Hurricanes welcomed Eastleigh RFC 2nd XV to the Fairway, the conditions were less than ideal for free-flowing rugby with the wind and rain swirling around the pitch for Sandown & Shanklin RFC 1XV’s match against Milbrook RFC on Saturday.
The home side didn’t get off to the best of starts to the game. The Hurricanes infringed at the breakdown and gave Millbrook an early penalty in front of the posts. This was converted and the opposition had given themselves an early 0-3 advantage. This shocked Sandown & Shanklin into life and the hosts were shortly back in the game after Darren Carew dotted down in the corner, following a line out catch and drive.
As the Hurricanes settled into a rhythm through their phase play, it started to cause the tough Millbrook defence issues, stretching them one way to the next. The home side managed to stretch the defence to create an overlap, and quick hands found winger Josh Wetherick who scored. Flux converted the second try of the game to extend the Hurricanes lead to 12-3.
With their tails up the home side were starting to hit their stride and from the restart. After another spell of attacks in the Millbrook 22, the Hurricanes third try was scored when the quick thinking Jack Wedderkop scooped the ball up and dived over for his 7th try of the season. Flux converted and the home side seemed to be cruising at 19-3. Yet the first did not end so well for the Hurricanes, after a spell of passive defending the opposition were soon capitalising upon a string of offences racked up against the home side. This culminated in a score minutes before half time by the visitors, and converted to narrow the margin to 19-10 at the break.
Millbrook started the second half the brightest and had earned themselves a penalty in the first few minutes of the half to cut their arrears down to 6 points, 19-13.
The second half was a tight affair between the 2 sides, as Sandown & Shanklin attempted to resist the oncoming Millbrook attacks. Strong defence from both sides made it hard for either side to break down the game, however an infringement from the visitors allowed Flux to knock over the resulting penalty, to extend their margin 22-13.
As the minutes slipped away, Millbrook threw everything they had at the hosts, and in the end in the last play of the game earned themselves a penalty. Opting to kick the penalty for the guaranteed Losing Bonus Point (LBP), this ended an enthralling fixture 22-16.
Sandown & Shanklin RFC 22 – 16 Millbrook RFC
The full match report can be found on the Sandown & Shanklin RFC website.
Next up for the Hurricanes is the Hampshire Bowl Quarter Finals on Saturday 13th October, at home to Eastleigh RFC. The 2 sides last met in this competition 4 years ago, in the semi-final stages. On that day Eastleigh RFC were victorious winning 12-0. Kick-off will be at 15:00.
