Buoyed by last week’s comprehensive win against US Portsmouth, Havant Dolphins league season got off to a challenging start with an away match at Winchester. The conditions were ideal for running rugby, although the firm ground and heat would test the fitness and durability of both teams.

From the kick off Havant applied a tremendous amount of pressure and dominated the scrum and open play. Havant maintained its continuity and it was only going to be a matter of time before they got over the try line. The first half saw Havant secure a comprehensive five try hall as a reward for their work. However, a combination of poor discipline and decision making enabled Winchester to reorganise sufficiently to score a couple of tries of their own.

With a half time score of 29-12, Havant rang the changes and utilised the bench to ensure that everyone had some game time. As you would expect from a team like Winchester they were not about to roll over and from the kick off they reacted well to a simple mistake and scored early in the second half. A spate of injuries caused Havant to reshuffle the team and style of play which effected the overall cohesiveness.

However, good defensive communication prevented Winchester from taking hold of the game. Havant regained its composure and scored again before finished the game as they started with a further score to consolidate a convincing win.

Havant try scorers Ryan Ray, Tom Sutton, Harrison Young, James Sutton, Dom Belman, Matt Shaw, James Lyndsey and James Sutton scored two conversions.

by Mark Hayler