Surrey 22 - 10  Hampshire at Havant RFC 7^th February 2010

Our boys launched their National Under 20 County Championship bid by beating Hampshire at Havant. The squad selected by the coaches, Tom Williams, Ceri Jones, Jim Evans, Mel Dean, and Ben Stocken started the game off with great verve and attacking pressure, immediately setting up camp on Hampshire’s line. A penalty was given against Hampshire and Andrew Gardner took it quickly and darted over to put Surrey up 5-0 after only 3 minutes.

Hampshire woke up and made it immediately clear that despite the early score this would not be a push over. Hampshire settled in our half and tried to use their powerful prop Matt Flower to devastating effect. However he was not too keen on sharing the ball with his mates and our defence which looked outstanding throughout, held.

Hampshire came away with the reward they needed with a Penalty awarded after 25 minutes. They were being refreshed by the water carriers whilst the penalty was being taken with our water not being allowed on the field. The crowd were not sure whether it was Tommy Byrne or the Hampshire coach also on the field as there did seem to be rather a lot of people on the pitch as Chris Lewis took the penalty. This did not put him off and he slotted it for 3 points. However this trend was not to last as the very good and fair Berkshire Society referee penalised Hampshire and Jack Cooke regained the 5 point lead by scoring 3 points from the penalty.

After being under pressure for some 25 minutes our boys woke up and in mid field Ross Fowles collected an interception and was just too quick for Hampshire to catch and touched down under the posts for Jack Cooke to convert with ease.    3 – 15 to us at half time.

The game ebbed and flowed initially in the second half and after a sweet break down the blind side with some crisp interpassing the speedy Fowles again broke away. Valiant defence managed to get an ankle tap on Ross but he managed to stay on his feet and have a clear run to the line to put us 17 points clear. Jack Cooke converted.

Hampshire did not indicate they felt the game was lost and fought back with some great counter attacking. Greg Sullivan was often at the heart of this and finally got his reward in the 65 minute with a 5 pointer that Chris Lewis converted.

A few niggles crept in and the Referee had words with both sides. After a while he was showing signs of losing a little patience and yellow carded Ross Thompson for holding on. Ross was hugely disappointed as he had just caught his own kick ahead quite superbly. So he probably suffered a little as a result of the earlier misdemeanors. However some on the touchline were surprised that the referee had not used his card earlier. Why? He was in control. Neither side was gaining anything particularly so why for the sake of it call for the yellow card to be overused.

In all it was a fairly contested game, in which Surrey, possibly having dominated the tight scrum and sapping the strength of the opposition, showed greater fitness and possibly better on-field organisation and cohesion.

Next stop the Army Under 20 at Aldershot on Sunday 14^th February 2010 at 14.00hrs in the next of the group games of this years’ championship. 

Dave Judd

Chairman