Impressive Hurricanes Dispatch Tricky Eastleigh side

Eastleigh RFC 2nd XV 0 - 48 Sandown & Shanklin RFC

The start of the New Year presented the Hurricanes with the tricky challenge of an away visit to Eastleigh RFC to take on their 2nd XV.
Sandown & Shanklin started the brightly, winning the ball back from the kick off and moving the ball well from side to side allowed the opportunity for great field position. This created the opportunity for a scrum 5m out from the home sides try line. The evergreen Greg Dean then picked up at base of the scrum and drove towards the opposition back row sucking the defenders in and including their chow chow puppy’s to free up Josh Wetherwick to score into the corner 5-0.
Moments after a pre-planned training move and some quick thinking from Tom Borrer, this presented greyhound speedster Owen Williams the room to show off his pace, going the long way round beating two defenders to dot down in the same corner 10-0.
The Hurricanes impressive start continued with their third try, when boxer Ben Shannon broke through the defensive line and then popped the ball to his right, which found Pembroke welsh corgi Harrison Booth who stretched his legs to go under the posts 17-0. With the try bonus point up for the taking, it came from stand in skipper for the day Zak, bull terrier, Chiverton brushing off his opposite number to race in 24-0.
From the restart Harry Hopper leapt like a Labrador, but was tacked in the air and luckily escaped serious injury. But this left Eastleigh with 14 men for rest of the half, as their tight-head received a yellow card for the misdemeanour. With the man advantage, the Hurricanes only had one thing on their minds, continue their ruthless pressure. This meant that it was only a matter of time until the 5th and final try of the half, coming from smart play by fly half and man of the match Cameron Mitchell. Knowing Eastleigh had to drop their openside flanker for a replacement prop, presented Mitchell with the room needed off the back of the scrum to slip into position drawing Eastleigh stand-off to create a gap bigger for Jack Wedderkop to go in untouched for his 13th in club colours this season, 29-0.
After the break few adjustments were needed to be made, as Dean Rottweiler Gregor efforts came to an end, meant match time for Adam the Bassett hound Tyas. Eastleigh clearly received the riot act from their coaches and came out with nothing to lose. Changing their style from the first half, kicking deep and moving the ball a bit quicker, perhaps should have gotten them a score early, had it not been for excellent defending by 2nd row duo Sam Rees and Luke Hunter. Big hits and silly unforced handling errors slowed Sandown & Shanklin’s intensity. However, they were sparked back into action by an outrageous break from tighthead, French bulldog, Martin Richomme. This gave the Great Dane, full back Ben Sanderson under the posts for an easy conversion 36-0.
With the fitness of the mobile Hurries pack starting to find gaps in and around the breakdown, this released Henry Bagnall off his lead moving around the park effortlessly and securing quick ball for Zak Chiverton to crash his way through to score his second try of the day and his 17th of the season, 43-0. The last score of the game, and saving the best to last, came none other than the DOR himself, Damien Marriott, running in from 80m, skipping his way like a whippet past four would be defenders to show the boys he’s still got what it takes to become Sandown 24th scorer of the season to end the game 48-0.
After scoring the try of the season I feel sorry for the boys, with the coach never going to stop talking about it during training DOR Marriott had this to say after the game.

Director of Rugby Damien Marriott Shared his thought after the game:
“Last time out in September, Eastleigh really shocked us, as they were the better team by far that day an probably should of beaten us. The weather that day was bad and we never got out of second gear. Yet, today was the complete opposite, the boys were fired up and gave the performance we all know we could and should be doing. With the big one coming up next week lots of the boys put their hands up to be selected, I’m really looking forward to this week coming. Two very good training sessions with lots of numbers competing for places, things are heating up quite nicely”