Some dreary conditions were met ahead of the Romsey Royal’s clash with Overton Rugby Club. A slow start to the game ended with an unfortunate break from Overton’s centre making a wake-up call for the home side. Another blow for Romsey came soon after with an injury to powerhouse, Ian Milanak, forcing him to come off for a brief respite while Nate Greathead was cheered on to take his place. After the early shock of an early try, captain Harrison Scott led his pack of forwards with a line up of Ben Hoad, Elliott Johnson, Ryan Daly, Dan Murrant, and Brad Hughes set up a strong maul from a line out to then be joined and propelled forwards over the line by Nate Greathead and Micheal Streicher for Ben Hoad to claim the five points for his team.

A sense of déjà vu occurred as the same centre made a breakthrough Romsey’s defence for another score for the visiting side. A switch in positions was called as fullback, Dylan Scott, swapped with Will Davies who would take his place at fullback as well as Ian Milanak making a return to play to come back on for Nate Greathead. Several changes in possession (and a brief flare up in tensions) later, Romsey centre, Ben Powel made a clean interception just outside of Overton’s twenty-two-yard line, he was quickly backed by other centre, Tyler Beardsley, who then made a pinpoint pass to winger, Jay Hodges who had a clean break for the line to only be stopped by a high tackle allowing the full seven points of a penalty try for the home side. The points for the half ended there after several attempts from both vice captains: fly-half, Jim Lamont, and winger Ollie Soundy and the unfortunate end of play for Elliott Johnson as a painful leg injury put him out of action and Nate Greathead to return to play.

Fresh legs were brought into play with youngsters Alfie Lawrence and Alex Watts coming on to take the places of Ian Milanak and Will Davies respectively soon into the second half. A lot of back and forth between the halves tested the endurance and physicality of both sides with some impressive carries from Micheal Streicher, Harrison Scott, Jim Lamont, and Brad Hughes. Eventually after several phases in the Overton twenty-two, Romsey win a penalty under the posts for Jim Lamont to split the posts putting Romsey in the lead. Overton put the pressure back on with a pick and go from one of their forwards under the posts; but Romsey responded almost instantly after driving the Overton defensive line from before their twenty-two all the way back to their try line, only being bought down illegally resulting in a second penalty try for the Royals’ forward pack consisting of Ben Hoad, Micheal Streicher, Ryan Daly, Dan Murrant, Harrison Scott, Brad Hughes, Alfie Lawrence and Nate Greathead for an incredible pack effort.

Overton tested the Romsey defence but despite the efforts of Nate Greathead, Brad Hughes and Alex Watts, a penalty was bought back for Overton to quickly tap and go to push over the line. But Romsey finally said “enough was enough” and refused to leave the Overton half with some incredible offensive efforts from Dan Murrant, Harrison Scott, Tyler Beardsley, and Ben Powell, and Romsey soon found themselves within a mere five meters from the Overton try line with the chance of a pick and go, Jim Lamont snipes at the opportunity to take the ball and charge through the scrambled defence to score and convert his own try to put Romsey in the lead in the final ten minutes of the game as a missed penalty puts a conclusion to what can only be a described a cruelling eighty minutes for both sides.