Havant Dolphins welcomed last years Div 3 winners Rosslyn Park Hatters to hooks lane in the league season opener for both sides.

With many players missing from the senior squad, this meant debuts for many players, both young, and a little less young!

There was some pre game stress, with Ben Lanigan injuring a rib in the warm up and Joe Milton called to the first team bench as cover for Paddy Dowds, who ship was on lockdown for a fire alarm. Ben did start the game but unfortunately had to come off soon after. As luck would have it, Jerome Trail who had come to watch, was swapped his jeans and shoes for some shorts and boots to provide the necessary front row replacement. The Dolphins would later be boosted by the return of Paddy to the first team and Joe made it back for the second half.

It was the Hatters that started the brighter with their experience in this league. The away side seemed to be more physical at the breakdown and their powerful pack created an opportunity for them to go over for an early score (unconverted).

this seemed to wake the Dolphins as they started to come back in to the game. Their for score was opportunistic with the ball being turned over in the Havant 22 and kicked downfield. With the electric pace and good footwork of Jay Wilkes, he controlled the ball over the line and pounced on it to even the scores. The conversion was missed from the corner.

A few minutes later a great break from the Dolphins backs got them into the opposition half and great tracking from Harrison Chalk and good speed sent him under the posts, with Tom Merrett adding the conversion.

There was some fantastic interplay with forwards and backs and the away could not live with the pace. The Dolphins really turned the screw and scored 4 more tries before half time. Tom Merrett got 2, Jay wilkes got his second and Dave King were the scorers. Tom Merrett could only add 1 more conversion.

HT - 34 - 5

The second half was more even with the ball travelling end to end. Havant were guilty of falling off the intensity of the first half and gifted the away side an interception converted try. they did respond with another well worked try through Will Owen (his first senior try) which was also unconverted.

The Hatters to their credit never stopped working, you could tell they were a team that would never give up and worked for each other. They scored their 3rd try again with their powerful forwards which was converted.

This again seemed to wake the dolphins for a final push and with some great footwork and power, Jerome trail capped of a fine individual performance with a try, converted by Ben Santy.

FT - 46 - 19

After the game head coach Lewis Osborne was satisfied with the performance, but called on the team to continue improving. 'We started slow and allowed them an early score. We had an extremely strong middle 60 mins where we played some fantastic rugby and they couldn't live with us. We new the job was done and let ourselves down toward the end. Against better opposition, that may cost us dearly. Overall though, it was a great start to our league campaign and we look forward to playing Chichester next week, which will be a different challenge'.

Man of the Match was scrum half Ben Santy. He controlled the game well and always put us in the right areas with his kicking. He did really well getting us on the front foot, especially after the first 10 mins were the Hatters came out strong.