IW 45-19 Havant III
Isle of Wight returned to winning ways after last week’s away reverse at Locks Heath Pumas, with a seven-try performance against Havant.
This proved to be an entertaining contest between two sides who looked to play expansive rugby, often successfully. Conditions were perfect except for the cold, and some fine tries were scored by both teams. IW welcomed back several of the players who had been unavailable due to illness last week, but their most welcome selection was that of co-captain Andrew Brown, making his seasonal debut after a broken hand sustained in pre-season training.
IW began in determined mood and struck at the heart of the Havant defence, carrying directly before exploiting fault lines, and scoring inside five minutes. Fullback Mark Waterer fielded a clearance kick and ran it back with interest, before finding no. 8 Luke Blackman who applied the finish. The mainlanders then gained a foothold and the next 20 minutes were closely contested, with little between the teams in general play. Yet IW got back on top, aided by their powerful scrum. The front row were not content with just scrummaging, Sam McQueen and Ricky Keyes with barnstorming carries, before a Blackman offload was collected by Nathan Rolfe who showed his pace to race clear. Fountain Inn man of the match Rolfe was on a hot streak and soon added his second, constructed similarly to the first but with George Huish claiming the assist this time.
Havant were now 21-0 down but it had not been one-way traffic, and when they got into the IW 22 they made it pay, spotting a dog-leg in the hosts’ defence. However, the Islanders had the last word of the half, Blackman cantering over after a sweeping move to confirm the bonus point. Huish converted all four tries, and IW led 28-7.
Plenty of good rugby was also played in the second half, much of it by IW. Experienced scrum-half Alex Augustus returned from absence and steered the ship ably, while Brown was enjoying his return and crashed over from close range for IW’s fifth try. This was answered in kind by Havant with a superb try out wide, but they were unable to contain the rampant Biffa man of the match Blackman, who was causing all sorts of issues and added two more tries for a remarkable four-try haul, Huish converting the latter try. Havant battled on and Rolfe was yellow-carded for a high tackle. From an IW scrum shortly afterwards, the ball mysteriously squirted out of the scrum and Havant capitalised to touch down for their third try. It was the home side who finished on the attack, surprised not to be awarded a penalty try as their scrum pushed their opposition over their own line. It mattered little in the end, IW maintaining their home unbeaten run.
IW have now reached the halfway point of their league campaign and lie in fourth place, though with a game in hand on the two teams just above them, Guernsey II the runaway leaders. From 11 games, they have 8 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. They have had 7 home fixtures and 4 away, which will be reversed in the second half of the season. IW’s return from those away fixtures will largely dictate their final league position.
IW travel to Overton on Saturday in their next assignment. The second team’s scheduled game was postponed, and they are away at Trojans on the same day.
IW: Waterer, Rolfe, Jones-Evans, Margham, C Browne, Huish, Augustus, Newnham, McQueen, Keyes, Blackburn, Pudney, Brown, Lynch, Blackman. Replacements: Wallace, Rann, S Browne.
