MATCH REPORT – 22.09.12

MATCH REPORT – 22.09.12
FAWLEY II (24) V I.O.W. II (37)

Saturday’s home fixture against the Isle of Wight 2nds proved to be a game played in the true spirit of rugby, when due to various contributing factors we were short of players, but the island team who were over both for the game and their ex-captain’s stag weekend did not hesitate in evening up the numbers and the game began 14 a side.

The IOW started strongly, you could tell they were ‘up for it’ from the off and scored three tries in the first 20 minutes, all in the corner, converting 1 making it 0 – 15. Fawley fought back and a passage of good forward work and a quickly worked ball to the backs saw Kyle Morant break through and interlink with Manasa Tawake who scored and converted under the posts 7 – 15.

The IOW came back strongly and used their No. 8 (who incidently was man of the match) to great effect. If it wasn’t for some fantastic tackling and awareness from our back row duo of Joe Weatherall and Danny Cooper would have broken through on numerous occasions. Following one such move the IOW were threatening the Fawley 22 when a poor pass was intercepted by Danny Cooper who following a 60m dash laid off beautifully to allow one of our borrowed players to waltz in for a try 12 – 15, half-time.

The second half following a few changes and an appeal from captain Dave Owen for another 5% effort started in the same manner, with both sides trying their all to break the deadlock. The IOW side camped out in the Fawley 22 and made numerous onslaughts at the Fawley line but were repelled time after time by strong tackling from the likes of James Neale, Carl Radford, and John Gunn in the forwards and Connor Lynch, Manasa and Dave Owen in the backs, one such onslaught resulted in a blow to our defence when Joe Weatherall was taken off with a head injury. Eventually a well worked move from a ruck saw them go in under the posts, 12 – 22.

Fawley came back from the restart and following a lineout the ball was spun out to the backs who moved it quickly out to the wing and scored in the corner, 17 – 22. The IOW quickly responded when a well, judged kick from their centre found the winger and he romped in unchallenged to make it 27 – 17.

With about 6 minutes to go a tactical substitution was made when one of the Fijian dads on the sidelines finally was relived of babysitting duties donned his boots, coming on to even the sides back up at 14 a piece. The ball was quickly spun out from a scrum on the 22 and within 15 seconds with ball in hand he sped over the line leaving the IOW shell shocked and bringing the scores to 24 – 27 following the conversion by Manasa Tawake.

It was all to play for and Fawley having been behind all game felt that there was a chance for last minute glory. Fawley cleared their lines from a scrum looking for our outside centre and winger but the ball was gathered up in the centre and pressure put on the Fawley line, a No. 8 pick-up resulted in a try 24 -32.

With two minutes to go there was just time for a restart and a consolation score, but the island were on a high and despite Fawleys best efforts the island scored once again in the corner ending the game 24 – 37.

With the best part of the game played with the score no more than 10 points apart both players and spectators were fully entertained. Fawley showed a dogged determination throughout, but in the end, the win was well deserved and the Island went off on their stag weekend happy and Fawley II’s patted themselves on the back for a job well done.

Man of the Match – Dave Owen.