Hampshire Counties 1

BOGNOR 33 EASTLEIGH 50

Photos (courtesy of Vicky Weller): James Rimmer smashes through the Eastleigh defence for a consolation try.

With Eastleigh flying high in the league as one of the likely promotion-contenders, this was always going to be an uphill battle for Bognor. The challenge was made even more difficult by withdrawals due to injuries to skipper Charlie Jays, centre Connor Herrington and hooker Ollie Mitchell, although stand-in captain Jamie Foote, the veteran George Castleton and hooker Shaun Bailey filled in admirably.

Eastleigh eventually proved too strong in all departments and fully deserved their bonus-point win, but Bognor can take great heart from the fact that they scored five tries themselves - more than any side has managed against the Hampshire side, apart from runaway leaders Havant.

Bognor looked nervous in the early stages, handling errors putting them on the back foot. Eastleigh, in contrast, were full of confidence and varied their game well, their forwards driving strongly before releasing their dangerous threequarter line.

Bognor’s defence held out well and the home side worked their way upfield to gain a scrum inside the opposition 22. Unfortunately, Bognor were penalised and Eastleigh were able to clear their line.

With ten minutes of the match gone, a second penalty, this time for a high tackle, allowed Eastleigh to take the lead and, five minutes later, after intense pressure, they scored their first try of the afternoon when Bognor literally ran out of tacklers.
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Bognor fought back and, after strong running by Josh Turner and Foote, the 43-year-old Castleton (see photo) popped up to score his first try in the 1st team for many years. Castleton, Bognor’s most successful-ever top-flight skipper, is normally an inspirational flanker in the 2s but, being the man he is, he stepped in at short notice to cover the gap at centre, and to no-one’s surprise he never looked out of place.

Just two minutes later Bognor went into the lead, good carrying by Matt Norrell and Simon Billington resulting in a fine try by Jeremy Newton-Young. The ex-France U-23 international converted his own try so that, after twenty -five minutes and against all odds, Bognor were leading by two points.

Eastleigh were visibly shaken but, from the re-start, Bognor again showed their inexperience and totally messed up their exit by dropping the ball and conceding a penalty. The goal attempt was missed but Eastleigh were on the front foot again and they took advantage of some weak tackling to score their second and third tries, after which they never looked like relinquishing the lead again.

The half-time score of 12-22 was a fair reflection of the visitors’ overall dominance but Bognor were frustrated that they again had given away so many penalties in crucial areas of the field. That sense of disappointment, however, was dwarfed by the concession of a further two tries immediately after half-time. So, in a ten-minute period before and after the break, Eastleigh had scored four tries and effectively put the result out of sight.

When Norrell was yellow-carded with his team already twenty-four points behind, Bognor’s sizeable crowd of supporters were fearing that a bad situation was about to get a lot worse. Amazingly, what happened was the exact opposite, Bognor showing great courage and determination to score three of the next four tries.

Centre Chris Hay, (see photo) making a welcome return off the bench after a long injury lay-off, scored the first try, before Castleton turned provider, allowing his old mate Billy Toone to scamper in under the posts.

Eighteen-year-old second row, James Rimmer, who looks stronger with every game, scored Bognor’s last try, and Newton-Young capped a fine performance to convert all three scores.

Bognor now look forward to a rest weekend before taking on second-placed Sandown & Shanklin ( kick-off 2.30).

Leighton Thomas

Bognor RFC

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