Hurricanes Finish Season in Style

Sandown & Shanlin 1st XV defeated Fareham Heathens in a 49 - 15 victory at the Fairway.

Sandown & Shanklin RFC - 49 - 15 Fareham Heathens

The final fixture of the season 2016/17 season, saw the Hurricanes host Fareham Heathens on a fine and sunny afternoon at the Fairway, a perfect day for rugby.
Before the game began both teams united in a minutes silence, in memory of Mike Bird, long term member and former player for the Hurricanes.

The game perhaps didn't get off to the best of starts for the home side, as Fareham started the brightest amassing an early 0 - 10 lead. However after Sandown collected themselves and finally managed to hold on to some possession they started to grow into the game.
First they struck back through Harrison Booth and then from the restart Zak Chiverton collected the ball and sprinted over from 60 metres out to put the Hurricanes back into control. Flux converted a penalty to increase the lead. Heathens struck back again with some loose defending by Sandown letting them down. This time around it was the industrious man of the match Harry Hopper who found space to sprint in, following some strong tackles from the winger and after some delightful hands from the back line, to provide him the opportunity to score. Following a good restart claim and clearance the Hurricanes found themselves back in Heathens territory and with their defence in disarray, following a rampaging run from the returning Todd Eldridge, scrum half Jacob Jordan sniped through a gap in the defence and dotted down. The half finished with Harrison Booth scoring a double when some clever hands allowed him to scoot through the line.

With a decent lead at the half time, it could have been forgiven that the home side would take the foot off the pedal, however the lads knew that nothing could be taken for granted and continued the second half with the same momentum as the first half. The creativity of Cameron Mitchell and Sam Tyson causing the Heathens defence issues, created the space for man of the match Zak Chiverton to get his second of the game. The attacking game from the Hurricanes wasn't the only highlight, as their ferocious tackling and defence lead by Ryan Carey, caused the Fareham attack to panic and Hopper was quickest to the loose ball and sprinted in for his brace. Fareham rallied and really started turning the pressure up in the set piece, nevertheless Sandown held firm. Then following a period of sustained pressure the ball was turned over and cleared.
The game finished with Matt Miselbach and Sam Tyson both scoring tries to finish the game.

A good result to a long old season for the Hurricanes. A lot of young players have gained experience of 1st XV rugby this year and a strong core of players have stuck through the tough times this year. Hopefully next season will see Sandown challenging for the top spot in Hampshire 1.
Thank you to all of the volunteers this season that have helped out keeping the Club running and the organisation of match days, without them there would be no Club. Also a thank you to all of the supporters that come and back the side.
Look forward to seeing you at the end of season dinner and awards evening on Saturday 13th May!

SSRFC XV: 1. Sam Flux, 2. Zak Chiverton, 3. Andrew John, 4. Luke Hunter, 5. Sam Rees (c), 6. Sam Branston, 7. Ryan Carey, 8. Harrison Booth; 9. Jacob Jordan, 10. Cameron Mitchell, 11. Michael Barrett, 12. David Graham, 13. Matt Miselbach, 14. Harry Hopper, 15. Sam Tyson.

Subs: 16. Gregor Dean, 17. Harry Miselbach 18. Todd Eldridge