Our 1st XV hosted United Services Portsmouth at the Raymond Brown Memorial Ground in Hampshire Counties Division 2 on Saturday and there was a large crowd cheering on the home side after a well attended pre match lunch.

We got off to a blistering start within the first minute our captain Henry Benson, playing at full back, joined the attack and put through a sublime grubber kick for his right wing Jack Kelly to race onto, pick up and dive over the line in the corner to give us an early 5-0 lead. Our forwards then started to dominate the game and following some surging runs from the pack, our number eight Andrew Lorton crashed over for our second try of the game and Chris Frost kicked the conversion. We were ruthless in the opening twenty minutes, with the opposition rarely encroaching into our half. After some interplay between our forwards, our prop David Budd smashed over for his first try of the game and again Chris Frost kicked the conversion. Then, following good link up work between our forwards and back line, our fly half Tom Veneroso darted over to score our third try of the game. US Portsmouth started to fight back and curbed our attack, but despite their efforts they were unable to breach our try line. Towards the end of the first half we scored the try of the game, when with some excellent interchanges between our players, our prop Adam Payne scored a well worked try that was a delight to watch. Shortly shortly before the half time whistle our left wing Chris was shown a yellow card, so we went into the break with a 29 - 0 lead, but would start the second half a player short.

US Portsmouth started the second half well and endeavoured to apply pressure to our defence, but they were not able to convert that pressure into points. With Chris Frost back on the pitch we started to dominate again and David Budd crashed over for his second try of the game. Scrum half Sammy Veneroso then darted through a crowd of players to score another try, but ill discipline led to our centre Chris Seaby being sent to sidelines shortly followed by second row James Fisher, reducing us to 13 players. Following a succession of penalties US Portsmouth decided to kick for goal and duly scored to put them on the scoreboard with 3 points. We then fought back and significant pressure gave the opportunity for our hooker Pat Fraser to score a well worked try. Our scrum half Sammy Veneroso then darted through to score his second try of the game. Chris Frost was able to kick both conversions to make the final score 57-3. With US Portsmouth in fifth place in the league, this significant win consolidates our fourth place position and applies pressure to the three teams above us.