A depleted Ventnor team were comprehensively beaten by a high-flying Winchester 2nd XI side in their Hampshire Counties 3 fixture on Saturday (26th November).
The home team set out their store early on with some powerful set piece work which meant that Ventnor saw very little of the ball for the 1st 20 minutes of the game, in which their defence was stretched to breaking point. For once, Ventnor’s scrum was coming under real pressure, with George Collett struggling to get a foothold in the greasy surface against his massive opposite number, and it took some wonderful close-in defence by the ageless Deano Magnurson, Joe Coghlan and Harry Colson to stem the tide. When Winchester went wide, they found Ben Soutter and Sam Lines in no mood to be beaten, and their aggressive tackling led to several handling errors. Even then, Ventnor’s problems persisted since they were winning the little ball at the set piece and that usually had them back in defensive mode, and the dam eventually broke with a try after a scrum was pushed back over the line. 7 – 0 to Winchester.
From the kick-off, great work by Dan Bell and Coghlan saw the latter in space only to be called back since it was deemed that the ball hadn’t crossed the 10-metre line. It was then pointed out to the referee that the 10-metre line was misplaced by at least 5 metres so – at the very least – the kick should have been taken again. But a scrum was awarded to the home team on the centre spot.
Ventnor’s issues were then exacerbated when Ben Savill was harshly yellow-carded for getting through a lineout maul but still, the home team couldn’t find a way through, with Chris Cardwell-Hill showing great speed to the ruck that claimed a couple of exceptional turnovers. Coghlan came off while Savill was in the bin so that Tristan Price could take over in the front row, and things improved in the set-piece, and another piece of great defensive work by Dan Bell and Cardwell-Hill led to a clearance kick by Fergus Kenny that the opposition full-back chose to take on the volley rather than catch. His kick was caught by a teammate a good ten yards ahead of him, and Ventnor all but stopped waiting for the obvious whistle which never came and Winchester won a penalty up the field to take the score to 10 – 0.
Despite these setbacks, Ventnor were coming into the game, and Ed Blake was putting in some powerful runs from deep which were terrifying the home defence. In contrasting style, Lines was also making ground, and the support provided by Andy Teague, Joel Walton and skipper Lewis Jones was ever-present allowing Louis Malkin some clean ball to get Kenny and his backline into the game. Kenny was exceptional as a pivot, and he worked his way through a repertoire of set moves which brought the ever-willing Soutter more into the game with some direct running. However, a hurried defensive clearance was picked off by Winchester, and their right winger just managed to evade the covering Soutter and Bell to score in the corner. 18 – 0.
Ventnor went back on the attack and forced a penalty, which Malkin slotted to bring the half-time score to 18 – 3.
Half time: Winchester 18 – 3 Ventnor
The 2nd half took up a familiar pattern, with Ventnor doing lots of good things only to spoil them with hurried or unsympathetic passes or knock-ons. One glaring example followed an exhilarating break out by Cardwell-Hill that set up a 3-man overlap 20 metres out only for the chance to go as the ball hit the deck. Price had stayed on after Savill had returned from his yellow card, but now Magnurson had to leave the field with a recurring hip injury, so Collett returned on the flank and put in a great shift with some intelligent support play and aggressive defence.
Malkin then had to leave the field with a back injury, so Cardwell-Hill took over at scrum-half and typically announced himself by driving the opposition number 8 back about 10 metres. However, these disruptions led to a couple more tries to Winchester, 1 of which was the last move of the game so the final score was 36 – 3.
Full time: Winchester 36 – 3 Ventnor
Ventnor: Savill, Jones (capt), Collett, Teague, Walton, D.Magnurson, Coghlan, Colson, Malkin, Kenny, Bell, Soutter, Lines, E.Blake, Cardwell-Hill Sub: Price Coaches: Jason Evans, Fergus Kenny and Clive Cardwell-Hill.
The A J Wells Man of the Match: Chris Cardwell-Hill
The Red Funnel Moment of the Match: Dean Magnurson
