IW II 17-51 Millbrook II
Isle of Wight’s seconds were defeated by visitors Millbrook in an entertaining and well contested Hampshire Three game at Wootton Rec.
With Millbrook’s first team given a walkover, they travelled with a strong squad, bolstered by a couple of loan players from Sandown & Shanklin. Isle of Wight were also able to call on a couple of players who would usually play in their first team, and a sunny afternoon and favourable ground conditions enabled plenty of expansive rugby from both sides. There was a stiff wind blowing straight down the pitch which favoured Millbrook for the first 40 minutes, and IW were affected by the injury-enforced loss of experienced forward Steve Dixon inside five minutes. Millbrook opened the scoring on 10 minutes, but the IW forwards put together some great phases and scored an equalising try courtesy of Ollie Boulter.
The forward battle was largely even in the first half, though Millbrook’s backs carried more threat and stressed the IW defence on numerous occasions. They regained the lead with a penalty goal, followed shortly after by two tries, the latter of which was unfortunate for IW when a promising move broke down and the ball was scooped up by one of the visitors’ speedsters for a run-in. IW again moved into opposition territory, and scored in a similar style to their opener, as the try went to Fountain Inn man of the match Sam McQueen. Gary Warvill converted, but Millbrook had time for one more score, leading 25-12 at the break.
IW felt that they were well in the contest, especially with the breeze now in their favour, but found it difficult to make headway in spite of having plenty of possession and territory in the second half. Millbrook defended strongly and were particularly adept at snaffling IW ball at the breakdown. There were strong performances nonetheless from Sam Jones and the excellent Boulter, while Karl Davey was energetic in his first game for three years, and Patrick Barry made his debut on the wing as a half-time replacement.
The first 15 minutes of the second half were scoreless, but after a spell of IW attack, a cruel blow was struck by Millbrook as they scored an intercept try. IW’s response was strong, although they made hard work of scoring their third try, which was well taken by replacement Toby Margham.
There appeared to still be time for IW to engineer a comeback from 32-17 down, but the mainlanders’ defence was too tough a nut to crack. There would be nine minutes of stoppage time added on, and in that time, Millbrook made hay against the tiring Islanders, scoring three tries. This made the score exceptionally harsh on IW, but there was no doubt that the better, more explosive team won.
IW firsts are back in action next Saturday, at home to bottom side Romsey. Kick-off at Wootton Rec. will be at 2 pm.
IW: Rolfe, Wynyard-Wright, Ormerod, Langdon, C Browne, Warvill, Hanson, Blackburn, McQueen, Keyes, Dixon, J Bishop, Jones, Puzey ©, Boulter. Replacements: A Groves, Davey, Marriott, Huish, Margham, Barry.
