Narrow defeat for Hurricanes seconds

Sandown travelled to newly promoted Andover on Saturday and came up against a strong outfit that will cause a lot of teams problems in their first season in Merit 1.

Andover hit the visitors early and scored three first half tries without reply, the only score for the visitors coming from a James London penalty. The Hurries pressed a few times but were out played in the first half and only good strong defence from the impressive WIGHTLINK man of the match Matt Jones coupled with some last ditch defending from backs Martin Keyworth and Tom Borrer, stopped Andover being out of site at half time. Half time 19-3.

The second half was a different story with Sandown pressing Andover on numerous occasions and spending the majority of the half in Andover territory.

The first Hurries try came when centre Josh Wetherick broke away and managed to wriggle in between two tacklers to pop the ball to winger Stephen Perfect (jnr), who raced away to touch down.

The second try came after constant pressure and when James London put a superb penalty in touch five metres from the home line, this gave Sandown a good base to secure the line out and from the ensuing drive Greg Dean popped up to crash over, James London added the extras.

Andover got back in the game and scored a controversial try that had the Sandown players convinced that the scorer dropped the ball over the line but their complaints were in vain as the referee awarded the try.

Andover then got ten minutes of sustained pressure and scored a well worked try. This spurred the visitors on and, with the last play of the game and from good possession in the Andover twenty two, the superb BIG JOHN man-of-the-match Harry Fish got on the ball and with defenders trailing in his wake he touched down under the posts. Edmonston converted bringing the final score to 29-22 to the home side.

A good performance in the end from Sandown as they look forward to the return visit of Andover later in the season.

TEAM: S Perfect snr, Tyas, McLaughlin, Steele, Fish, Jones, Buxton, Dean, Edmonston, London, Johnson, Wetherick, M Keyworth, Lillington, Borrer, S Perfect jnr.

Try: S.Perfect Jnr, Dean, Fish
Conv: London, Edmonston
Pen: London