Andover 84 - Ellingham and Ringwood 5

We travelled to Andover for our final Hampshire Counties Division 1 fixture of 2023, but unfortunately the day did not start well when our number 8 Oli Grant took a concussion in the warm up, following an accidental clash of heads with team mate Tom Henfrey, leaving us with just one player on the bench.

Andover got off to a good start scoring a well worked try after five minutes and their full back Richard Retallick kicked the conversion. He was to have a fine game and by the end of the match he had a 100% record with his kicks at goal. Andover continued to dominate scoring another two converted tries in the first 15 minutes. After twenty minutes our second row Mike Treloar sustained a back injury, which meant he had to leave the pitch to be replaced by Ben Samuels, our only replacement. Andover continued to apply the pressure this time their right wing Arlo Matley dived over to increase their lead. Andover added another three tries in the first half with second row Nicholas Reed and flanker Bryn Waite getting two of the tries. This all gave Andover a 49-0 lead at the break.

Our defence improved in the first period of the second half, but Andover's dominance of the game continued with a further five tries in the second half with Arlo Matley adding to his score in the first half and their scrum half Louis Pererria, who had an excellent game, scoring one of the other tries. Despite their dominance we continued to work hard, despite being down to 14 players with replacement Ben Samuels injuring his knee and then down to 13 players with Flanker Ted Johnson sustaining a foot injury. We had a try disallowed in the far corner for a double movement. Eventually our scrum half Sam Venerosso took off on one of his sniping runs to allude the home team's defence and dive over for a consolation try, but he was unable to convert this, which made the final score 84-5.