Ventnor II 17-17 IW II
A closely contested local derby ended with honours even at Watcombe Bottom. A late try salvaged a draw for the battling IW, who suffered from a number of late cry-offs leaving them with a rather thin squad and without a full front row, leading to uncontested scrums.
A deceptively stiff breeze contributed to the proverbial ‘game of two halves.’ It backed up the home team in the first half, though IW settled first and applied pressure in the first eight minutes, before Ventnor ran out of defenders and the ball was moved wide for hard-working forward Jayme Bishop to touch down.
Ventnor soon came back and dominated the remainder of the first half. In the persistent drizzle, handling was difficult for both sides and defences were on top, but a spell of pressure culminated in a Ventnor try to level the scores. IW had difficulty clearing their lines at times, and it was Ventnor who scored again on the stroke of half-time. The conversion gave them a 12-5 lead at the break.
Debutant Harvey Stanton was forced off at half-time through injury, but veterans Dan Stirrup and Spencer Fox were rolling back the clock with stellar performances, as IW now had wind advantage and took control of most of the second half. However, strong home defence and handling errors were keeping IW at bay, until almost the hour mark. Not to be outdone by his brother, Biffa man of the match Dan Bishop crashed over to narrow the gap to two points.
In this period of play, Ventnor committed several infringements and incurred two yellow cards. Much to IW disappointment, they conceded a try in this spell and were again seven points behind. Spending most of the final quarter in opposition territory, they appeared to have scored through replacement and player-coach Keith Wallace from a trick lineout, but the referee called play back. It was left to Arid Design man of the match Gary Warvill to sell a classic dummy and sidestep over for a trademark try with time almost up. Warvill added the conversion from under the posts and both sides had to be content with a share of the spoils.
IW: Scandrett, Stanton, Stirrup, Ormerod, Wynyard-Wright, Warvill, Gurling, Davey, Butler, D Bishop, J Bishop, Webster-Smith, Stretch, Langdon, A Groves, Fox, Wallace, Blyth.
