Gosport well beaten by Chew

The first 20 minutes of this game were very close, with both sides having good chances. An excellent tap tackle by Miles Hackett prevented Gosport taking the lead after 10 minutes and shortly afterwards Chew were down to 14 players following indiscipline in the Chew ranks following a high tackle on a Chew player. This didn’t seem to put off Chew and shortly afterwards, with Gosport trying to run the ball out of their 22, they spilled the ball after a crunching tackle, allowing Tom Huntley to pick up the ball to score. Gosport responded immediately, with a penetrating run from the right winger to score in the right hand corner. Chew however, were beginning to look the more dangerous team with their scrum having the best of the scrimmages and rucks. A scrum against the head on the half way line gave Chew the ball and fly half Harry Stride made an excellent run, carving through the Gosport defence to score a second try for Chew. Shortly afterwards he was instrumental in another move, picking up a lose ball on the half way line and breaking through the Gosport defence before slipping a pass to Jason Bluet to score under the posts. Conversions by Miles Hackett brought the scores to 21 to 5 at half time.
Gosport started the second half with determination and an interception allowed them to score their second try within minutes of the start. Chew responded, piling on the pressure and a ruck 5 yards out from the Gosport posts gave Jason Bluet an easy opportunity to score his second try. 5 minutes later he was involved in another excellent move by Chew, making good ground into the Gosport half before getting the ball out to Kyle Cording who crashed through the Gosport backs to score. Chew now had their tails up and straight from the kick off, Hagen Voight collected the ball and charged off through the Gosport defence. A good pass to Jordan Bluet on the 22 allowed him to score his third try of the match to bring the scores to 36 to 12. Minutes later some good handling by Chew allowed Tom Huntley to increase the lead further with a good try in the right hand corner and at this stage it looked as thought the touring side’s festivities the night before were beginning to show. However, as Chew appeared to ease back a little, Gosport took the initiative and two good moves in the last 7 minutes of the game allowed them to score twice to bring some respectability to the score line.
This was a good performance by Chew and a nice way to round off a bit of an up and down season. The team has made good progress since the autumn and we look forward to another enjoyable season next year.