Lymington 19-5 Eastleigh II – Match Report

Lymington make it 5 wins in a row

Saturday 19th February 2011

Lymington Mariners 19 – 5 Eastleigh II

Lymington Mariners confirmed their place at second in the Hampshire Merit Two league with a hard fought win against nearest rivals, third placed Eastleigh 2s, on Saturday.

From the kick-off a fired up Lymington, determined to repay Eastleigh for the defeat against them earlier in the season, set up camp in the opposition half, the forwards leading the charge to keep any attempt at flight by them grounded. With their backs to the wall Eastleigh battled hard to thwart the advancing Mariners but after about 15 minutes the pressure finally told. Debutant Merrick Gill picked up a loose ball, drove for the line and despite the best efforts of 2 tacklers managed to squeeze an arm over the whitewash to touch down. Jamie Bolwell scored the conversion.

From the restart Lymington continued to have the territorial advantage but the strong tackling Eastleigh back line held fast. The forwards continued to dominate in the tight with the front row of Stuart Harvey, skipper Owen Cavell and Callum Kellas controlling the scrum and Charlie Cutler winning plenty of ball at the front of the line out.

Mid-way through the half vice-captain Joe Rodway got involved in some hand-bag slinging with the Eastleigh No.13. Both saw yellow for their troubles which resulted in some banter between Simon Nuding on the touchline and the Eastleigh Manager who complained that Joe wasn’t waiting his time out behind the goalposts. Simon kindly informed their manager that Joe was receiving treatment due to being punched in the head by the No.13. 1-0 Simon…

Chris Scott-Bowden was orchestrating the play well at scrum half and took every opportunity to urge the team for another score before the half time whistle. Eventually he took matters into his own hands when Lymington were awarded a penalty 5 metres out. Instead of using the chance to run one of their new penalty moves Chris decided to take the quick tap himself, bounced off one tackler and then scurried round three more to touch down in the corner – saving himself from a hefty fine by Owen. Jamie Bolwell showed how well the hours of practice were paying off when he converted from the touchline. Half time was called straight after with Lymington leading by 14-0.

The second half saw Eastleigh start to make some threats of their own on the Lymington line but the Mariners’ defence repeatedly beat them back. Meanwhile the hairless Latvian international Bruno Brods in the unaccustomed role of full back, alongside wingers Mike Jenner and Peter Rolfe were equal to Eastleigh’s attempts to gain territory through use of the boot. Then, 15 minutes in, Lymington were caught napping as a quick penalty was spun wide by Eastleigh for them to touch down in the corner. The conversion was missed so the score stayed 14-5.

Eastleigh revived by their try continued to stretch the Lymington defence but to no avail. The Mariner pack employed the maul from the lineout to great effect and the charging Steve O’Callaghan at inside centre made sure Lymington continued to cross the gain line with ball in hand. One Eastleigh attack was memorably stopped dead by a perfectly timed tackle by No.8 Lee Thomas who floored their No.13 so hard he needed a minute or two for his lungs to remember what they were for.

The Eastleigh No.13 then managed to cap off his less than perfect day when having ruined a promising attack with a forward pass responded to some Tim Hinman giggles by calling him a fat C U Next Tuesday in front of the referee. For this he received his second yellow card and the accompanying red meant he would take no further part in the match.

Minutes later Lymington used the extra man to devastating effect and killed the game off. The centre pairing of Steve O’Callaghan and Mark Etheridge both expertly drew their tackler to put the looping Joe Rodway in to space. He then ran half the length of the pitch and instead of taking the simple option to put his brother Ben away on the wing, preferred to go through the last defender and then use the wet ground to slide the final 3 metres to the try line himself.

With just two minutes remaining another Eastleigh player was shown the yellow card, this time for a rather unsporting use of his left knee in a ruck 5 metres from the Lymington line. From the same play an Eastleigh flanker was concussed and also needed to leave the field – if only his legs would start working again. With a nod from Eastleigh’s skipper the referee agreed that it was probably a good idea to head for the showers and on to the Chequers for some well earned beer and chilli.

This week the ‘Lymington Rivaaz Man of the Match’ award goes to debutant Merrick Gill for an outstanding performance at blindside flanker particularly as he hadn’t tied his bootlaces for a couple of years prior to Saturday. He owned the fringes at the breakdown, continually cleaning up loose ball and making penetrating drives to keep the Mariner machine rolling forward.

Holidaying in France this weekend it almost goes without saying that Dom Ellis did not score.

Next Saturday Lymington are at home again in a friendly return fixture against Ellingham and Ringwood.