A nervous Vects under-13s Island rugby side lost the toss to Winchester at the Cup final in Petersfield, however came home Hampshire champions on Sunday.
Early pressure from Vectis forced Winchester to give away a penalty – in front of their posts and with the sure left foot of Max Fletcher Vectis had three points on the scorecard after three minutes.
Winchester started to look more confident and their pack had the edge over the Vectis forwards. The next phase of play saw Winchester keep Vectis in their own half but good defence and an eye for opportunity soon turned defence into attack for the Island side. From a messy Vectis line-out on the far side of the pitch came the chance to feed it out to the backs right across the width of the pitch, Luke Margham having looped round to support Winger Matt Spencer-Brading. Spirited attempts to nail the number 10 fell short and Vectis were another five points up. Luke failed to convert the try leaving the score 8 – 0 after 9 minutes.
Winchester, desperate to close this early gap, piled the pressure on and from a poor collection by Vectis at the restart saw them put keen pressure on the Island side yet again. Forcing Vectis up to their own try line – who held a good but retreating defence – Winchester continued to stress the Island side forcing a penalty which, quickly taken, delivered Winchester’s first try and was followed by an easy conversion. One point in it: 8 – 7 after 14 minutes.
Max Fletcher restarted the game from the centre with the Island team swarming into the Winchester half. Winchester knocked on and, from one of the scrums we did win, the ball found the safe hands of Jack Daley who outpaced the competition to score a try in front of the posts allowing Max Fletcher to convert easily for another two points. At the end of the first half Vectis were 15 – 7 up.
Vectis started the second half kicking the ball into the Winchester half. Bradley Hobbs, who took the scrum-half position for the second half, was kept busy behind rucks, mauls and scrums. Max Hill fed the ball out to Max Fletcher who utilised the huge space available to his left, handed-off the opposition and, although supported by Rob Newton and Matt Spencer-Brading, needed no help in running the ball over the Winchester try line. However, the wind and steep angle were against Luke Margham on the conversion. The score now 20 – 7.
The final points, to Winchester’s disappointment, came from deep in Vectis territory. The forwards were kept continually busy as the Winchester boys piled on the pressure determined at least to narrow the score. From winning scrums and turning over some of our rucks they pushed closer to our line – having a try disallowed by the linesman was another bitter disappointment. But the defence of the Vectis U13s continued to stop Winchester until the ball was fed nicely away from the main group of players and into the hands of Max Fletcher who raced it up three quarters of the pitch to add another five points to the Vectis scorecard. It took only Luke Margham to add the final blow to the opposition with an excellent conversion to bring the final score to 27 – 7 – and the Hampshire cup to Vectis U13s. Nulli secundus indeed.
The team was: Forwards – Ethan French, Joey Hughes, Ed Bailey, Alfie Foster, Ollie Coulson, Ben Woodford, Max Hill, Will Hickman and Harry Hughes.
Backs – Louis Malkin, Luke Margham(cptn), Max Fletcher, Jack Daley, Rob Newton, Matt Spencer-Brading, Dominic Marsh, Ethan Tucker, Bradley Hobbs, Frazer Turnbull and Finlay Sandy.
