Portsmouth 13 - Ellingham and Ringwood 0

We travelled to Portsmouth on Saturday for a mid-table clash in Hampshire Counties Division 1. This was our first fixture against Portsmouth's 1st XV in our 57 year history and it was to prove to be a close game.

The opening exchanges were tight, but Portsmouth made it difficult for us to get out of our half with a lot of pressure. Despite this, our defence held firm, but eventually Portsmouth were awarded a penalty and chose to kick for the corner. From the resulting line out their forwards used their driving maul to great effect and their hooker Bradley Atkins crashed over the line to give them a five point advantage but they not able to kick the conversion. Further ill discipline from us led to another penalty being given away, which Portsmouth kicked to increase their lead to eight points. This sparked us into action and we finished the first half strongly, but were unable to get on the scoreboard.

On a bitterly cold day the home team decided to retire to their changing room during the half time break, while our hardened New Forest players braved the cold conditions with our head coach Alan Steel inspiring his team to challenge their opponents and changing Henry Benson at scrum half with Brad Evans.

We started the second half very strongly and following some good interchanges with second row James Fisher and openside flanker Ted Johnson, the forwards drove towards the Portsmouth try line. From the driving maul that followed our hooker Pat Fraser crashed over the line, but the referee was unsighted and deemed that the ball was held up. Portsmouth fought back and scored a second try, which again they were unable to convert. Portsmouth had further opportunities to extend their lead in the second half with two kickable penalties awarded, but both were missed.

At the end of the game, we felt we did not really click in what was a frustrating afternoon. We also sustained some injuries to players, which could be costly as we face run away league leaders Petersfield next Saturday..