Romsey II (17) – (37) Lymington II – Match Report

Mariners on cloud Nine

Romsey II 17 – 37 Lymington Mariners II

Saturday 19^th March 2011

The winning run continued for Lymington Mariners on saturday as they put seven tries past Romsey’s second team to make it their ninth victory on the trot.

Led out by captain of the veterans, Andy O’Callaghan, Lymington started the game full of running and from the kick off they recycled the ball through 5 or 6 phases to take the ball deep into the opposition 22. On this occasion the Romsey defence held firm but it wasn’t long before Lymington got their first. Jamie Banasik was the scorer, back from injury after a 3 month lay off, and starting at inside centre due to James Bell being late to arrive after another afternoon in West Quay looking for some size 10 kitten heels. In fact true to form it was only the first of three for Jamie who with ground to make up on Joe Rodway for this season’s golden boot scored a first half hat-trick.

All three of his tries involved running round, through or past a melee of opposition defenders in a way the rest of us can only marvel at and be bloody happy we’re not the ones trying to stop him. His third try down the right wing left us all baffled as to how he found the space to beat so many defenders intent on nailing him.

The first half also saw two early substitutions. Dom Monkhouse had to come on for Lee Thomas after he had another spell of the dizzys.  Rob Chatley replaced Jason Bolwell who had somehow allowed his face to get danced on by one of the Romsey forwards (he who lives by the sword….). At least he doesn’t have any good looks to ruin.

The other try of the half came from winger Jamie Bolwell with a jinking run through the defence. Unfortunately Jamie’s kicking boots had been left behind in Beaulieu so none of the four tries were converted. The tries by Lymington were punctuated by three converted penalty kicks by Romsey  leaving the half time score 20-9.

The half ended in the nick of time as Mark Etheridge, always an over boiling pot of fired up enthusiasm, was found rolling about on the floor with one of the Romsey forwards. What the young man lacks in brains on the pitch he more than doubles with heart.

The second half was a stuttering affair for the first 20 minutes. Romsey scored their fourth penalty to close the gap but then mid way through the half Joe Rodway made space for himself around the half way line and let his pace do the rest to touch down under the posts. It would have been a slightly more upbeat moment for Joe had one of the chasing Romsey  efenders decided not to do a late Vinny Jones feet first sliding tackle causing him to leave the field and be replaced by the now recovered Lee Thomas at fly half. Joe still found the energy to thank the offending Romsey player loudly enough for the children present to receive a vocabulary lesson they won’t get in one of his classes at school. Mark Etheridge still in Berzerker mode ran half the length of the pitch with obvious illegal vengeful intentions in mind. Fortunately he wasn’t quick enough to get there before his brain engaged so by the time he arrived he did nothing more than turn round scratching his head ready for the restart.

Jamie proved to everyone that he can miss the simple conversions as easily as the difficult ones to leave the score 25-12.

Romsey soon after replied with a try of their own in the corner to keep the game alive. 5 minutes later however captain Owen Cavell, not long on for his young Apprentice Anthony Hoyles (who incidentally scored his first ever scrum against the head), sealed the game for Lymington.

From a surge that started with Lee Thomas showing young Rodway true fly-half skill by expertly executing a behind the back reverse pass scissors move with the marauding Ben Bradley-Watson Lymington moved upfied to within 5 metres of the Romsey line. Then, not to be outdone by his Mini-Me, skipper Cavell took a scrum against the head himself and then picking up a loose ball from the resulting ruck drove hard and low to cross the whitewash for his try. Again master Bolwell demonstrated his consistency by missing the conversion.

The icing on the cake came in the final minutes when second row Charlie Cutler scored his first ever try for the club. The forwards, now completely dominant drove the ball deep into Romsey territory. Charlie playing off the fly-half’s shoulder received the ball and side-stepped past 2 defenders before bouncing a third off to add the 5 points.

With such a simple conversion opportunity presented to him Jamie was concerned he might tarnish his 100 percent record for the game. In a flash ‘Nil Poi’ Ellis  decided to take the conversion to score his first ever points in over thirty games for the club. It was a shameful display of childish impatience that he decided to kick the conversion instead of waiting for his first points to come from a try. Particularly as I’m sure with the level of skill he constantly shows on the pitch he is probably only three or four seasons away from scoring one. Still, of all the players that have scored for Lymington (practically everyone that’s had more than about 10 minutes game time) he still has the lowest tally and from here on will be referred to as ‘deux poi’.

This week’s ‘Lymington Rivaaz man of the match’ award goes to the rising star, Anthony Hoyles who worked tirelessly round the park and whose line-out throwing and hooking responsibilities were deployed with such expertise he looked like he’d been doing it for years. Skipper Cavell must be looking upon his young sidekick with equal measures of fatherly pride and nervousness for his position.

Next week Lymington take on New Milton’s second team in the much awaited return league fixture at Woodside Park. Kick off is at 3pm and everyone is invited, indeed urged, to come and cheer the boys on in their attempt to do the double over their local rivals.

And for those that missed it, Dom Ellis still hasn’t scored a try or even a valuable point for the club.