10 Try Feast

By Dave Donaldson
Fordingbridge entertained a depleted Blandford side, lending them 3 players (a rare luxury for the 2s) and earned a 5 points in 10 try win.
From a long high kick off from full back Josh Goodchild their knock on gave us immediate advantage. Scrum half Tom Sheppard who sniped well all afternoon stayed strong into contact, recycling well the ball moved along the backs and Mat Maynard (10) forced a penalty. Opting to run it, Phil Collier with a great show and go (always wanted to be back) opened the scoring 5min in 5-0.
Sam Elkins (12) showed some great control in contact and offloaded to hooker Keith Walsh who ran an impressive line just missing the score himself going into touch. From the 5m line out Mark Price fought well and on numerous occasions won their line out with some brave aerial handling. With the platform set Phil Collier powered over for his and our second try 10-0 (11min)Sam Elkins showed a clean pair of heels evading numerous tackles from the half way line scoring in the corner and after 15mins 15-0. Bridge continued to control the game and some solid rugby was played, but Blandford's 12 Ryan Bradwell broke away and they opened their account on 20 mins converted well from the touch line 15-7
From the restart we won the ball and the pack took control again and Tom Sheppard collected the ball from the back of the drive to score the bonus point try after just 23 mins 20-7
Liam Hobbs standing in for Blandford countered well at the breakdown and really made a nuisance of himself and his covering tackle stopped winger Steve Watson from scoring in the corner.
Again Mark Price stole the line out and Matt Maynard gained a lot of yards offloading well to John Dossitt who forced his way over 25-7 (30min)
After 34 min captain Dave Gogin picked up from 8 splitting their defence and with support from John Dossitt he offloaded for Tom Sheppard to score his second try 30-7
From their long re start Bridge had a rare panic in defense and Keith Walsh proved why hookers don’t kick!! The pack took control though and with the last play of the half Sam Elkins went on another long run and got his and our 7th try 35-7 half time.
The second half change around Phil Collier, Mike Parry and Tim Beer stood in for Blandford. Although Parry in their forwards he still seemed to be playing in the bridge half flying out of the blocks (well with a head start behind the ref) spoling our momentum.10 min into the half Graham Brannagan supported Matt Maynard well and still with work to do extended the lead with the first converted try 42-7. 2 min later Matt Maynard broke through to extend the lead 47-7
Phil Collier proved he can infringe for any team conceding a penalty. With the long boot we were back on their 5m line. Unable to break through the second half became very messy.
On 33min Blandford opted to run a penalty from half way , with great pace their 10 Joll Mariner went over for a converted try 47-14
From the restart we regained our shape , Tom Sheppard controlling the pack eventually we were earned a scrum 5m out. Skipper Dave Gogin picked up at the back and sneaked over for our 10th try converted by Josh Goodchild 54-14
Blandford showed good spirit and had a lot more possession and deserved the final score of the game when their ‘Olympic sprinter!’ Ollie Taylor flew in for their 3rd try-converted Final score 54-21
All on the touch line had heard of a Challenger Tank, Chieftan Tank but not a Collier tank he had spent the game smashing through tackles.Tom Sheppard earned MOM and Keith Walsh (kicking) DOD.Next week we travel to Salisbury for our league fixture