An Enthralling Game Ends up All Square

Sandown & Shanklin welcome 2nd placed Alton to the Fairway, in a return fixture earlier in the season. That time out the visitors were victorious as they limited the Hurricanes to two tries and cemented their place at the top of the table.

The weather played it's part in another hotly contested game between the two sides, with the warm-ups for both sides affected by swirling winds and spells of hails storms. The Hurricanes kicked off, and after regathering possession, were ahead inside five minutes. Forwards Smith, Flux and Chiverton forcing the Alton defence backward and when Ben Shannon picked up the ball he drove over the line to score, for an early 5 - 0 lead.
It didn't take long for the visitors to reply, as the Hurricanes struggled to clear their lines against the stiff wind, Alton regathered possession and worked their way up to the Hurricanes five-metre line. After being held up over the try line, the following scrum was driven over and the Alton Number 8 dotted down to tie up the scores, 5 - 5.
The Hurricanes soon worked their way back upfield, this time through a string of penalties, Flux booted the hosts into the Alton 22. Despite losing possession at the lineout, as the Alton fly-half tried to play out from his try line, lost the ball in a speculative offload and zak Chiverton powered over in the corner, to edge Sandown & Shanklin ahead again, 10 - 5.

Alton again replied, this time after earning a penalty at the scrum, by kicking the three points to cut the deficit to 10 - 8. Then followed up by working their way down the field again to score from close range to edge ahead for the first time, 10 - 13.
The final say of the half went to the hosts. After again working their way upfield with the carrying of Shannon and Rees, the ball was spread wide to centres Tyson and Man of the Match, Michael Cooper, who also made headway against the staunch Alton defence. As the Hurricanes made their way closer to the visitors try line, another period of infringements allowed the home side to cut loose. Sandown's third try was scored by Sam Branston, following some decent handling skills and put the home side ahead, 15 - 13 at the half time break.

Following the half time interval, the Hurricanes started brightest, after securing possession from the kick-off and set about increasing their lead. A superb passage of interplay between Tyson, Cooper, and winger Michael Barrett, saw the winger go in unopposed to touch down, 20 13. Again the swirling winds making the conversion difficult for Flux to score.

The visitors did not roll over and powered their way upfield with enterprising play and keeping the ball in hand. They eventually made their way into the Sandown 22 and after creating space out wide, managed to score in the corner. The conversion missed, but the score was now 20 - 18.

The Hurricanes managed to strike back almost immediately to restore their advantage. The forwards worked their way into the Alton 22, and with the away sides defence in disarray, quick hands found substitute Tom Borrer in space to dot down in the corner. The tricky conversion from out wide just missed the posts and the wind played havoc again on Flux, 25 - 18.

The final quarter of the game was with the Hurricanes attempting to hold out the Alton advances. Tireless tackling from Branston and Bagnall along with impressive efforts from substitutes Dawson and Cole could not prevent the away side from scoring from close range, however. And with the try scored virtually under the posts, the relatively easy conversion meant that the game was all tied up, 25 - 25, with barely a minute left on the clock. The Hurricanes attempted to find a final score but were held out. Both sides accruing three points apiece towards the league table is perhaps just a reward for both in an entertaining fixture.

Final thoughts from Sandown & Shanklin RFC, Director of Rugby, Damien Marriott:
"Any time a game ends like that, you’re always going to be extremely disappointed at the end of it.
What we are trying to achieve is to be the best team we can be every time we take to the field. There was a list of lessons we learned from the Petersfield match last week. Every week a different team brings a different type of challenge, so it is very hard to compare one with the other. I think we will learn lessons from this game and we will be better again in the next match.”

The Hurricanes now face two weeks off with the Six Nations taking the front seat in the next few weekends. There will be a chance for all players, new and experienced, young and old to take to the field in the first Friday Night Lights game, in conjunction with Hampshire RFU, on Friday 13th March. More information to follow in the next few days.