Trojans 32 - Ellingham and Ringwood 44

We travelled the short distance to Eastleigh on Saturday to face Trojans in a mid table clash in Hampshire Counties Division 1. We were keen to try and avenge the narrow close loss at home earlier on in the season and continue our unbeaten record in 2024.

The day did not get off to a good start with our replacement Alex Day clashing heads in the warm up with our left wing Jack Kelly, which gave Alex a bloody nose and concussion. This put our preparations behind, but we still made a good start when our loose head prop Adam Payne bundled his way over to score the first try of the game, but unfortunately our right wing Chris Frost was unable to kick the conversion. We continued to apply the early pressure and following some good work by our forwards, our captain and scrum half Sammy Veneroso set off on one of his sniping runs and dived over to double our lead. On this occasion Frost was able to kick the conversion. We continued to play well and in the twelfth minute our left winger Jack Kelly ran from deep and showing good footballing skills hacked the ball through, twice outpacing the home side's defence, to then pick up and score under the posts, which again Frost was able to convert.

This spurred the home team into action and after some fine running rugby, their full back Joby Kochanowski dived over in the corner to reduce the deficit, but they were not able to kick the conversion. With the Trojans fly half Tugdual Long starting to control the game, he set his pacy back line off and they crossed over for their second try of the game, but again were unable to kick the conversion. In the 34th minute we were applying the pressure which led to Trojans straying off-side and Frost extended our lead with a penalty goal. Unfortunately Frost then blotted his copy book when he attempted an interception in the 40th minute, only to be adjudged to have deliberately knocked the ball on and he was shown a yellow card for his offence. So we went in with a 10-22 lead at the break, but would have to play the first ten minutes of the second half with a player short.

Despite being down to fourteen men, we started the second half strongly, with Chris Hancock coming on to replace our second row Tom Sampson at half time. Deep in the opposition territory, Ellingham's forwards put in some strong work and this included the impressive break by our tight head prop Mike Treloar in the photograph. This enabled their scrum half Sammy Veneroso to grubber kick the ball through the Trojans winger's legs and Sammy was able to collect the ball and dive over in the corner to extend our lead. Then in the 56th minute Sammy Veneroso sealed a fine performance when he completed a captain's hat trick of tries to put us in a strong position, despite the conversion attempt not being successful. Despite this, Trojans fought back and their fly half Long showed some good individual skill to score their third try of the game, which he was able to convert. This comeback was to be short lived, as our hooker Pat Fraser was able to muscle his way over the line and extend our lead again, although Frost was not able to kick the conversion. Then from the 72nd minute to the 78th minute the Trojans fly half Long dragged his side back into the game with some fine individual skills, to complete a hat trick of tries in a devasting spell of rugby. The pick of the three tries was a delightful chip over our back line, which Long duly collected to dive over and score. We were in danger of repeating their previous game by letting a lead slip through our hands near the end of the game, but with Trojans pressing hard for what could have been the winning score, our centre Chris Seaby ran from the half-way line to dive over under the posts. Frost was able to add the conversion to give us a 32-44 bonus point win and our first victory away at Trojans for many years.