Trojans not in a loving mood on Valentine’s Day
A bumper crowd were present for Romsey home match against local rivals Trojans who currently set the pace in Counties 2 on a day that saw a rare appearance in 2026 of the sun. The visitors put their hosts under pressure from the start but strong tackles from Silas Clark with an E and a deft piece of ball pilfering from Alfie Lawrence allowed the pressure to be relieved. Trojans pinched the lineout and spun the ball wide and opened the scoring. Solid defence by Jay Hodges and Dylan Scott were in vain as the Trojans winger slipped through and slid over to extend the lead. Some slick hands followed from the visitors and within five minutes a third try was added despite the valiant home teams defence and Romsey were staring at a Valentine’s Day massacre. A less than romantic coming together of Oli Coburn and Ian Milanak’s heads resulted in both of them splitting them open and managing to avoid heading out for an overpriced meal, replacing that with a stale sandwich from the local hospital canteen. Oli Soundy found himself under a pile of men, a position he usually likes but this one forced the wind out of him and he needed to be replaced on the wing by the flowing locks of Josh Davies normally a flanker. While Romsey were reshuffling Trojans wrapped up the bonus point before half time and took a 0-24 lead into the break.
A quick start was needed by Romsey to try and get a foothold back in the game but two quick tries from Trojans put the match beyond doubt. Romsey did however continue to fight hard with Sam Page running himself to a standstill and fellow new boy Jack Light carrying hard at every opportunity. From a thunderous carry from Brad Hughes, who had remembered where the rugby club was, supported by Will Murrant, who thought it was a better idea to play for Romsey than go and watch Scotland like his 40-year-old brother Dan, gave Romsey a good attacking platform. Hooker turned centre Ben Hoad then barrelled over his new opponent and this gave Jim Lamont a wide enough gap to waddle through to score adding the conversion himself to peg the score back to 7-36.
This fired the visitors back up and they utilised their useful backline to counter attack from deep and take advantage of the tiring home side to score 2 quick tries. With Elliott Johnson and the pizza inspector Tom Bird more than holding their own in the scrums this allowed Harrison Scott to carry hard and set up another opportunity for the home side, but Will Davies, who’s mind had wandered to the large number of dates he had lined up for the evening, elected to call a “no nine” move despite the ball being next to his feet and the moment was gone (a bit like events that evening according to reports). 2 late tries were added to take the score to 7-64 which doesn’t reflect the hard work and effort shown by the Romsey squad.
Post-match coach Jason Berry reflected “Tough day at the office, the lads battled hard but Trojans are top of the league for a reason and that’s because they take their chances. The score line doesn’t reflex the effort we put in and Trojans definitely would have felt it wasn’t a walk in the park.”
Skipper Harrison Scott echoed those thoughts adding “Thought the effort was good. Big shout to both Sam Page and Jack Light who stuck at the task superbly. It was always going to be a steep challenge after 3 injuries in 30 mins but the efforts stayed high against a classy Trojans team who made every mistake count.”
This week sees a break with the club open for the England v Ireland game from 1330 followed by a trip to US Portsmouth on the 28th.