Lymington v Chineham – Match Report

LYMINGTON KEEP PRESSURE ON LEAGUE LEADERS

Lymington Mariners 26 – 7 Chineham

On saturday Lymington confirmed their second place in the Hampshire 2 league with a comfortable win over Chineham. Led for the first time by vice-captain Joe Rodway, skipper Cavell spent the match running the line and showing everyone his bruised and fat(ter) left leg. As seems to have been the case with almost every saturday since the club formed the sun was out and with it came a good supporting crowd – inflated by the 2nd team squad who had been let down at the last minute by their opponents Aldershot and Fleet.

Lymington got an early 3 points on the board with a Tom Jenvey penalty. Then, ten minutes in and defending their own line Joe Rodway, from a scrum sent a massive clearance kick up field. Jason Bolwell stole resulting line-out ball and charged up the short side making good ground and setting up clean possession. The ball was spun to flanker Nick bubb who set up another ruck with quick ball going through the hands to outside centre Joe Winterton. A flash of pace by Joe dragged the Chineham right winger into the tackle allowing him to hook a pass behind the tackler’s back to put Tom Jenvey into the corner for a try.

Lymington’s forwards continued to apply the pressure on Chineham’s defence and a further Jenvey penalty took the score to 11-0.

Phil Jenner deciding on a career move from the girls to the backrow looked like he’d been playing there all season and along side Nick Bubb and Dan Dugmore the three began to dominate the loose play. Just before the break he appeared to upset the Chineham no.10 and handbags looked like they might start to swing. Instead, in the next phase of play Phil got his hands on the ball and lady fortune saw to it that it was the fly half who had the burden of tackling him. A dipped shoulder later the no.10 found him self flying backwards with a big smile that sportingly conceded the battle.

The second half started much like the first with Lymington, following a kick and chase by Nick Bubb, being awarded a penalty which Jenvey converted for a 14 point lead.

Dom Ellis appearing to be the target of consecutive Chineham kick offs again set the ball up cleanly for the backs to inject some flare to proceedings. Some fine handling led to a chip over the defensive line and the Chineham full back just beat Aidan to the touch down.

Play then swung back to the Lymington line following but some excellent defensive work showed why the Mariners have conceded fewer points than anyone else in the league.
This was followed up by the best attacking phase of the game as backs and forwards combined to run the ball first right then left across the width of the pitch. A penalty was awarded to Lymington inside the Chineham 22, then a line out and finally a scrum 5 metres out. The ball was then spun wide and deep for Aidan to score a well deserved try in the corner.

From the kick off Jenner cut through the middle of the park, opened up the backs and had Steve O’Callaghan retrieved the ball bobbling over his head another score looked on.

Following a speculative between the legs pass by Joe Rodway the ball was hacked clear by Chineham but Ben Bradley-Watson with his retriever like skills picked up the loose ball to cut out any threat.  Joe Winterton then made the break and his second assist of the game by slipping the ball to Jenvey for his 2nd try of the match, duly converted 26-0.

Chineham to their credit continued to push and finally from a 5 metre scrum their no.10 crossed the line for a converted try.

With a few minutes remaining Lymington pushed for the bonus point. What looked like a good line-breaking move was judged illegal and a rather frustrated Joe Rodway, using some rather bad language, saw him  asked to reflect upon his linguistic skills on the touchline for rest of the match.

Finally the whistle went, the score 26-7 and a 5th league win in 6 for the Mariners was in the bag.

This week’s ‘Lymington Rivaaz man of the match’ was a difficult choice. Having conducted a poll of those both players and those on the touchline there was still little consensus. Jason Bolwell thought it should be him, Dan Dugmore was mentioned by some for his tireless work round the park and superb efforts in the line-out, Aidan and Tom the scorers of all our points were discussed as was the faultless performance of centre Joe Winterton. However, the player with most mentions was Phil Jenner who playing at No.8 was a force in direct running and was responsible for creating momentum that our backs were able to capitalize on with great effect.

If it wasn’t so funny it would be almost boring to have to finish every match report with the inevitable words that once again Dom Ellis didn’t score.