The Stags Enjoy Their Trip to the Seaside.

After four weeks of foul Saturday weather the sun finely shone a little at last and, chilly though it was, the thirty players plus subs involved in this game clearly decided that the sevens season was just round the corner.
If the Stags are serious about their promotion challenge - and after this win and Havant’s home win against the leaders all season until now, Medway they have moved to top of the pile - they would do well to remember that it is having the best defensive record in the league that has given them a possible launch pad. Powder puff tackling though and abandoning a wolf pack mentality will not see them land any prizes.
The home side drew first blood after what could only charitably be called a defensive misunderstanding which saw their left winger put away into the corner with some ease . He was to prove an elusive runner in his own right all afternoon and, with their other very solid looking winger of Fijian heritage, albeit a product of Totts' own youth set-up, a menacing presence, there should have been ample warning that one simply could not afford to miss tacles. Instead CS decided to put their money on the philosophy, ”Anything you can do, I can do better.”
And so tries were exchanged with Toby Guyett soon dotting down for CS, converted from wide out by James Houstoun, then another unconverted home try wide out followed by a Stags’ text book effort from an attacking scrum with a large short side: 8 to 9 to blindside winger, Pumulo Banda and what proved to be the first of three for him and an important score indeed to level again at 12-12.
Banda was, not long after, celebrating his second following a dink through by fly half Liam Cleary who is in a rich vein of creative form indeed. And so it was CS who were shading the contest at the interval, 12-17.
The fifteen minutes after the break were to determine the outcome of this match.
First, the ever industrious Tom Williams picked a very good line to burst through and score, then Zach Stamp got in on the action on his wing to score also, before Banda was over again for his hat-trick after a clever kick into space by scrum-half , Adam Nixon, gathered by Ryan Martin who fed the man of the moment.
Tottonians looked to be staring down a very long barrel indeed, particularly as Will Scott was playing out of his skin and was to go on to collect the man of the match award rather than our hat-trick hero : probably just as well as he can neck a pint pretty swiftly. He too was to get on the score sheet but not before the home side had started something of a rally by scoring to reduce the arrears to 19-36.
At 19-43 there was no question any longer of who was going to prevail but the home team was determined not to go quietly into the night and instead gave their own supporters something to cheer about with two late tries, and a bonus point therefore, after CS's bemused skipper, Matt Proctor had found himself in the bin after receiving what should really have been one of his other team mates’ technical yellow.
Three more issues are worthy of mention : the otherwise very impressive refereeing of the Hampshire official, the extraordinary botched kick from hand attempted by a certain Welsh CS forward and , finally, our host's splendid hospitality . Tottonians is everything a rugby club should be and we could not have been made more welcome.