Hurricanes Escape with Narrow Victory

Hurricanes Escape with Narrow Victory
Farnborough RFC 10 – 13 Sandown & Shanklin RFC

After defeating the league at the time, Petersfield, last weekend, the Hurricanes travelled in a buoyant and enthusiastic mood to their reversed fixture against Farnborough RFC. With three wins on the bounce for the away side, and four losses on the trot for the home side, the form book would have called for a victory for the visitors. However, the home side started the game the quickest and their play belied their lowly position in the league, immediately testing the Sandown & Shanklin defence with their big runners. Whilst it looked like last week’s game had affected the legs of the Hurricanes, the home side were in ruthless temper, after being defeated the week before by the Isle of Wight RFC.

After ten minutes the defensive effort from the Hurricanes had held out the Farnborough attack, yet an infringement would yield an early penalty attempt for Farnborough to kick to the corner and turn up the pressure. Sandown defended the line out and managed to force the home side backwards, however after being stretched from one side of the pitch to the next, the Farnborough winger dived over for the games first score and with following a successful conversion, gave the home side an early 7 – 0 lead.

Off the restart, the home side infringed, and will some possession finally in the hands of the Hurricanes, the away side could attempt to attack the hosts. The same attacking game was not quite there from the start, that was implemented so effectively against Petersfield last week, and with the passes being a little forced, Sandown were struggling to make some head way. Nevertheless, a clever call from full back Sam Tyson to fly half Joel Carey to chip the on rushing defence, caused panic in the Farnborough ranks, as Tyson chased down the ball and was brought down close to the line, he offloaded to winger Michael Barrett who was then tackled close to the line. Farnborough did enough to hold out and clear their lines, but a strong line out catch and drive had allowed Sandown to get up to the Farnborough line again. A punch from the home side flanker saw him take a 10-minute breather to the sin bin and put his side down for 14 minutes for the remainder of the half. A subsequent maul was held out by the hosts, however they could not quite clear the lines fully, despite their early half dominance. As the play became a little more frantic, the Hurricanes could find some space out wide and managed to put the ball through the hands. This progressed them into the Farnborough 22, and with the host defence stretched again they infringed. Man of the Match Joel Carey, with some sharp thinking, took the quick tap and burrowed his way to the try line to get the Hurricanes on the scoreboard – with the conversion just short, the half ended 7 - 5 to the home side.

The second half started, with the game in the balance and the hosts back up to their full complement, rang the changes. The Farnborough side still threatening on the Sandown 22, however when a chance to increase the lead arose, through a penalty – it was pushed wide. A penalty at the other end of the field was converted by Sam Flux, after the Hurricanes attacking game was starting to fire, but was denied by a Farnborough infringement. This was followed a tough period for the Hurricanes, testing their defensive line. The collective effort from the 15 on the field managed to hold a bay certain try, which was knocked on over the line, thanks to the tackling from David Graham. Another penalty in front of the posts followed for the hosts, but again they missed the penalty and the Hurricanes experienced another close escape. Man of the Match Ryan Carey, was quick at the ruck and managed to steal a turnover and prevent another attack and spurred more life into the Hurricanes. After managing to clear their lines, play took place in the middle of the pitch for the next 10 minutes. In a bizarre moment, with a penalty to the Hurricanes awarded and marched 10 metres up the pitch for chatter to the referee, it was reversed for the same infringement and awarded to Farnborough 20 metres the other away. The hosts elected to kick the penalty to attempt to extend their lead. In odd circumstance, they missed their third kick in a row.

With minutes to spare the Hurricanes attack sparked into life, and were forcing the Farnborough defence into retreat. Following a penalty to the corner which was followed by line-out played quickly off the top the Farnborough defence was again stretched. This allowed the back line to use quick handling skills and Matt Miselbach had put Sam Tyson into space, who dotted down in the corner for an unconverted try and a narrow 10 – 13 lead, with barely any time to spare. The game was restarted and with possession reclaimed and Farnborough infringing in a last-ditch attempt to reclaim the ball, the game was brought to a close and the Hurricanes has picked up, what seemed unlikely through a majority of the game, an away victory. Fair credit, must be given to the hosts who gave it their all and threw everything at Sandown, however in the end, the unyielding character and indefatigable will of the Hurricanes has earned them their fourth straight win.

Next week, the 1st XV travel away to Fordingbrigde, which poses another test for the Sandown & Shaknlin. The 2nd XV are at home to Fawley 2nd XV, and again will be a great game to come down to the Fairway to watch.

SSRFC XV: 1. Henry Bagnall, 2. Zak Chiverton, 3. Sam Flux, 4. Luke Hunter, 5. David Greenough, 6. James Flux, 7. Ryan Carey, 8. Sam Rees ©; 9. Jacob Jordan, 10. Joel Carey, 11. Michael Barrett, 12. David Graham, 13. Matt Miselbach, 14. Harvey Kirkby, 15. Sam Tyson
Substitutes: 16. Sam Branston 17. Harry Hopper