Match report: Third-placed Ellingham & Ringwood RFC seal hard-fought 41-26 Hampshire Counties One triumph over valiant New Milton RFC
Despite holding positions at differing ends of the table, third-placed Ellingham & Ringwood had to be at their best to see off bottom-of-the-table New Milton by a 41-26 scoreline on Saturday.
New Milton were straight out of the blocks, with their relentless pressing for an opening score embedding the hosts in inside Ellingham & Ringwood’s 22-metre line. The visitors gave away six penalties, resulting in yellow cards for Chris Frost and Dean Smith.
New Milton kept up the pressure, but Ellingham capitalised, with Dan Stewart striding out of defence. The scrambling home defence made a decent saving tackle, resulting in a knock-on. However, after winning the scrum, a sloppy pass straight to Hugo Leigh-Watts, who crashed over the line for the first try of the game with nine minutes played.
With 20 minutes played, the referee awarded a penalty try when a New Milton player was adjudged to have prevented a nailed-on try and was duly sent to the sin bin for ten minutes.
A second try soon followed, with Leigh-Watts powering his way over the line for his second try of the game in a man-of-the-match display after a quick tap-and-go penalty.
Stewart, playing on the wing, went from provider to try scorer with a strong run through the New Milton defence to score a well-worked try in the 27th minute, which secured the try bonus point for the visitors.
After the break, New Milton came out determined to make a better fist of the game and were duly rewarded in the 46th minute when a delightful crossfield kick from Joe Eldridge allowed Luca Minardi to run free and touch down to make it 22-7.
The score appeared to spur on Ellingham, who soon added another try through Adam’ Higgo’ Higgins, who powered his way over the line to extend the visitors’ lead, with Veneroso scoring the simple conversion.
New Milton were playing well without reward, with Leigh-Watts touching down for a converted try with 62 minutes played.
Straight from the kick-off, former Ellingham & Ringwood player Nick McQueen bounced off a couple of forwards and ran through a couple more to muscle over to score the home team’s second try of the game, which they were able to convert.
To balance out things in relation to returning players scoring against their former clubs, Dan Jackson scored against New Milton before the hosts fought back, with McQueen running in under the posts for a converted try.
With Ellingham reduced again to 14 players following second-rower George Randall’s yellow card, New Milton stalwart Lyndon Booker earned a bonus point for his side after an electric 80-yard dash for the line that belied the burly forward’s stature.
Following back-to-back matches over the past five weeks, Ellingham & Ringwood have a well-needed break before facing Bournemouth at home next Saturday, while New Milton travel to face Eastleigh on Saturday.
Ellingham & Ringwood: A. Payne, P. Fraser, T. Sampson, G. Randall, C. Scott, D. Smith, A. Lorton, D. Jackson, S. Veneroso, T. Veneroso, D. Stewart, C. Hamerston, A. Higgins, C. Frost, H. Leigh-Watts. Subs: S. Dargan, T. Johnson.
New Milton: H. Chung, L. Booker, G. Shortland, J. Corbett, G. Warne, R. Pearce, T. Wood, N. McQueen, M. Mycroft, J. Eldridge, R. Thomas, J. Payne-Owen, N. Smith, L. Thompson, N. Miller. Subs: Z. Smith, L. Minardi, P. Preez.