By Isle of Wight Observer
Ventnor claimed an emphatic 64-0 at home to Lymington Mariners, in the RFU’s Men’s Community Cup, with the visitors standing with the Ventnor team for a pre-match tribute to Tristan Price, who lost his life in a recent car accident.
Lymington got the better of the early exchanges, and the ref had to warn Ventnor for a series of infringements, giving Lymington territory but not points. With discipline restored, Ventnor grew in confidence, exploiting the flanks through the pace of Alex Bulpitt, dominating scrum and line-out, with Jack Rushton playing his heart on out in the No 1 shirt and scoring 2 tries.
Early in the match, Bulpitt drove down the flank before off-loading to Tom Branagh, who found Harvey Wheeler to open the scoring and Josh Ford converted the first of his seven conversions. Later, a tap penalty saw Jewy Jones and Dan Lythgoe take the ball on for a score, and player-of-the-match Bulpitt was on hand to set Ford up for Ventnor’s fourth score. Cody Hayman set Harvey Wheeler up for his second try of the game, followed by Ben Souter combining with Bulpitt for Branagh to touch down, with Ventnor 38-0 at the break.
The second half kicked off with changes as Riley Lloyd, Will Broomfield and Max Wheeler joined the battle, and Hayman was yellow-carded for an infringement. Tom Scadden added to the scoring, exploiting a gap in the visitors defence from 30 yards, followed by Branagh scoring again. A Harvey Wheeler kick, chased down by Joe Coghlan, found Archie Lucy to score, followed by Lucy working with Broomfield and Wheeler, to find Coghlan to complete the scoring at 64-0, giving them a place in the quarter finals on May 2.
In Counties Three, Isle of Wight won 31-16 at home to Tottonians II. After being pinned back for much of the first half, conceding 2 penalties in the first half an hour, Cameron Browne and player-of-the-match Ed Lynch retained possession, allowing skipper, Luke Blackman, to intercept a pass to score with George Huish converting for 7-6. Replacement Joe Bussell adding a further try to secure a 12-6 lead at the break.
Momentum ebbed and flowed, with George Huish adding a try, with the visitors scoring and taking advantage of Ben Savill’s yellow card.
With 15 minutes left, it was 17-16. The resolute and resilient defence, with Aidan Wan playing with an injury, and an eight man shove allowed scrum-half David Blackman to score with Huish’s kick, extending the lead to 8 points. Following a maul, Sam McQueen completed the scoring for 31-16, with the win lifting the Islanders to third place.