The rain greeted Romsey as they arrived for their first cup game in Berkshire against Hungerford RFC. The first team to get points was Romsey as fly-half Jim Lamont, renowned for his length, slotted a penalty from close to 50 meters out. Hungerford responded after a panicked response from Romsey when receiving the kick off that gave the home side possession within sight of Romsey’s try line; several phases from the resulting scrum put Hungerford over the line.
Hungerford didn’t relent after a knock on from the kick off from winger Alex Watts, giving the hosts a scrum that gave their backs the chance to make a play and put the ball over the line under the posts, giving them a clear lead.
Romsey didn’t lose hope as after some dominate attacking effort’s from Captain Harrison Scott’s pack of forwards battled their way within fifteen meters of the Hungerford try line and after a dominating driving maul from a line out put them within only five and then only two phases later, youngster Oli Pike, found the gap and dove over the line and after a successful conversion, Romsey were back in the fight at half time.
Replacements of wingers Josh Cleife and Alex Watts for Ollie Wise and Jay Hodges. The second half started rather uneventfully despite incredible scrummaging from forwards Dylan Argent, Alfie Lawrence, and Ryan Daly, as well as great defensive efforts from Admire Munenga, Sam Wilding, and Dan Murrant; complemented by some impressive attacking moves from Will Davies and Dan Penn-Newman. Additionally, a replacement for Elliott Johnson was made for Darren Hall. However, Hungerford hungered for the try line, after several phases of slowly but surely making their way from the twenty-two to the five-meter and then the try line.
Spurred not to fail, Romsey gathered all their remaining strength in the final five minutes after a driving maul from a line out drew in the defence, allowing space for the back to get the ball out to speedster Sam Adams to sprint around the defence and place one down for one final converted try but the efforts came short for an equaliser in the remaining five for a final score of 24-17
Thoughts from the coach:
Today we travelled into the unknown to Hungerford. There were a few changes, but I was really pleased with the lads coming in – they’re more than capable of playing week in and out for our club. The weather didn’t help, and it seems we didn’t get the rub of the green with some calls against a gnarly opponent . We’ll take it on the chin what we’ve learned and move on, with another game at home against Havant in two weeks. We go again.
Match report by Alex watts