After a win at home earlier in the season and then draw away to Millbrook in the league, we were aware that this Hampshire Vase game was always going to be a tough fixture, but it is true to say that the game did not quite live up to expectations. Although hard fought and played in great spirit it was not an exciting game with both teams struggling to find their rhythm throughout.

In front of a large crowd of supporters, we kicked off with the slight wind and the sun on our backs and were soon awarded a penalty converted by Mat Norton. At this point we had most of the territory, but the Millbrook defence was very strong. Despite a lot of pressure from our strike runners like Ross Bealey, Harry Hitchings and Mark Hammond we could not break through although another penalty did come our way on nineteen minutes which Mat Norton duly converted to give us a slender six-point lead.

It seemed that our scrum was more than matching the large Millbrook unit but we could not get our line out functioning as we would want.

Shortly before the break Millbrook scored a try but were unable to convert it so the half finished at six points to five and all to play for in the second half.

With the advantage of the breeze and setting sun behind them, Millbrook controlled the early part of the second half and took the lead with a penalty. As in recent games we seemed to lose impetus in the middle of the game which eventually allowed Millbrook to stretch their lead further with an unconverted try to take the score to six points to thirteen. Fordingbridge did have a penalty with ten minutes to go and elected to take the three points to close the gap to four.

The game was finally decided with a late penalty to Millbrook which saw them home with a nine points to sixteen win.

Captain, Harry Hitchings, commented that it had been a long time since we had failed to score a try in two successive home games, which just seemed to sum up the afternoon for us.

Our congratulations go to Millbrook and we wish them good luck in the final.