An ugly win of rearranged game in tricky conditions
Romsey travelled to the east of the county to play Petersfield 2s in a game that was rearranged from before Christmas due to poor weather and the heavy rain this year meant that the pitch was rather slippery underfoot. It was due to these conditions that the Romsey players kept sliding offside at the breakdowns and off a couple of tackles which allowed the home team to take an early 7-0 lead. The penalty count kept rising and this lead to Admire Munenga feeling the wrath of the referee and earning a 10-minute break.
This sparked Romsey into life and a break by “Luke Litler” double Will Davies was carried on by Ian Millanak who was held up short of the line; a deft pass to Jay Hodges attracted 2 defenders by he was able to feed the ball back inside to the supporting 30 year old Dan Murrant who raced over from 8mm to score under the posts. The kick off was taken by debutant Sam Page who carried hard up field by the greasy ball was nudged forward. Northampton saints super fan Tom Bird and Elliot Johnson put their opposite numbers under a great deal of pressure at the ensuing scrum, and this led to a hurried clearance that Jack Murrant gathered and set off in search of the precious. He weaved through the defence before a good tackle stopped him, but Alfie Lawrence was on hand to race over to give the visitors the lead. Another turnover at the breakdown from the elegantly coiffured Harrison Scott was shipped to the slightly less coiffured Milanak who used his power to bounce several tacklers off him and he scored wide out, Jim Lamont adding his third conversion with a fine kick from the touchline to make it 7-21 at half time.
Almost from the kick off Romsey added the bonus point try when Ethan Hunt, realized that his little legs and a 75m run to the tryline were a mission impossible, he put the refreshed Munenga in space and his mazy run created a 2 on 1 which he unselfishly passed to Silas Clarke to score his maiden try for the club. The ensuing kick-off was taken by another debutant Jack Light, who secured a tricky bouncing ball, and this allowed a surge from the third (and better) Murrant brother, Will. There had obviously been an argument over the breakfast table as his pass to his brother Jack caused the later to have to stretch awkward and was crunched by a double tackle. Somehow, he managed to offload in contact, and the ball reached the venerable Jim Lamont who just outpaced his 62-year-old opponent to extend the lead to 7-31.
Munenga finally got the try all of his hard work deserved when Oli Soundy, having spent the first half being chatted up by the elderly ladies on the Petersfield sideline and doing much for cross county relationships, decided to chase a speculative kick ahead, blatantly ignored a wide open Dan Murrant, in a possible anti-ginger fit of pique, and passed to Munenga who dived over. The experienced home side started to niggle the Romsey youngsters and took a liking to trying to remove Dylan Argent’s red scrum hat and this provoked the visitors into giving away more penalties in the red zone which allowed them to be awarded a penalty try to make it 14-38.
Romsey had the final say following a deft cross field chip the flaxen locked Clarke was held up on the line, but this allowed a balding Will Davies to trip over the tryline to close out the game 14-43.
Post match live from Franklins Gardens having watched Saints trounce Tigers coach Jason Berry said “We saw debuts for Sam Page and Jack Light. On a heavy, slow pitch that really hampered our style of play, we were forced to dig in and out-wrestle a heavier opposition. Despite the conditions we scored some good tries, it wasn’t a pretty performance, but it was a vital win.”
Captain Scott said “It’s good to finally see the back of this game, a slow start but we showed resilience to overcome some discipline issues and laziness. Shout out to Will Murrant who quietly was my man of the match.”
This week the 6 Nations returns so there is no game, but it is live at the club before we welcome Trojans to Romsey on Valentines Day.