Seniors

Fixtures

First XV

Second XV

Third XV

l League game hb Hampshire Bowl game f Friendly jv RFU Junior Vase mt Merit Table c Cup game sl Solent League game hl Hampshire League hp Hampshire Premiership

2020/21 season

Senior Coaching Team

Head Coach

James Croker

Assistant Coach

tba

First XV Captain

Matt Lovell

Manager

Caroline Clark

Second XV Captain

Adrian Payne

Manager

Lloyd Bennett

Third XV Captain

Tim Grant

Manager

Mitch Williams

Results

First XV

18 Sep

Twickenham

25

35

Eastleigh

Second XV

18 Sep

Eastleigh

10

15

Havant

Third XV

18 Sep

Eastleigh

40

3

Portsmouth

	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	P.For	P.Ag
1st XV
2nd XV
3rd XV
Social XV

Match Report

18th September: Twickenham RFC away

Eastleigh RFC kicked off their first league game in over 18 months with an away trip to Twickenham RFC. A fresh looking 1st XV squad included 7 debutants along with many familiar faces. It turned out to be a successful day at the office for the pirate dogs.

The game kicked off with Twickenham coming out hard and fast having a majority of the possession and looking to break through what was a very formidable Eastleigh defensive line.

The scoring was opened by the visitors as Matt Lovell elected to go for goal from a penalty with the skipper slotting the kick.

Then the pressure resumed from Twickenham and after a sturdy defensive set from Eastleigh they were eventually breached, resulting in a try for Twickenham, with their 10 adding the extras.

It was then Eastleigh’s turn to apply some pressure after a few phases within midfield, the hard work won a penalty which was placed within the corner. Allowing for a perfectly executed rolling maul, finished off by George Cotterell much to the annoyance of Matt Horne who had the ball ripped out of his grasp a few steps before the line.

The home team responded well to conceding and set up shop in the Eastleigh half. They added 3 more points with a penalty in front of the sticks before scoring their second try of the afternoon, coming from a kick through that Eastleigh didn’t react quickly enough to.

Eastleigh came into their own in the latter stages of the first half with good phase play, hard running and some very good supporting lines allowing for Dylan Read to rumble over for Eastleigh’s second of the game.

A high press from the back line allowed Aaron Encock to capitalise on a miss placed pass from the Twickenham midfield and scooped up the ball to run in from the half way, with the extras being added by Matt Lovell. Two tries in quick succession looked to have halted the charge from the home side.

Shortly before the half the hosts added another 3 from a penalty in front of the posts.

HT 18-22

Eastleigh come out of the half all guns blazing. A strong performance from the pack driving the opposition back throughout the half, allowed for the visitors to build a platform. A clearly fatiguing twickenham side were making more errors and it wasn’t long before they were punished. Turnover ball allowed the impressive Lovell to break through the scattered defence and offload to Read who ran in his second of the match, the extras were pushed.

Even with changes to the front row Eastleigh were relentless at scrum time and continued to pile on the pressure winning multiple penalties. 10 yards from the opposition line the skipper elected for the kick at goal, with himself slotting the kick putting Eastleigh 28-18 up.

From the resulting kick off Eastleigh marched up the other end after multiple phases, more scrum penalties and more pressure on the opposition line. It eventually took Chris Buckett forgetting he was winger to get Eastleigh over the line from short range, as he picked and went on his own for a bit of meat in the corner. The extras were pushed but it was now a 3 score margin with less than 10 minutes left.

For the last minutes of the game the hosts were pushing to try and get back in the game but great defensive play from Eastleigh forced multiple mistakes and allowed them to clear their lines. With the clock counting down the hosts managed to dot down in the corner after a series of quick hands beat the Eastleigh defence around the edge, with hosts adding the extras.

Classic game management from Sean Hayes finished off the game and didn’t allow Twickenham a loosing bonus point which, in all honesty, they probably deserved on their performance. Fantastic result to start the season after a long hiatus.

FT 25-35 (BP)

Match Report

29th February: London Exiles RFC at home

Eastleigh hoped for a quick and dominant start however this was quite different to what happened; straight from the kickoff, the London Exiles second row broke through the home side’s defence and as the ball was shipped wide, the visitors scored in the corner. This was shortly followed up by a penalty to give the visiting side an early 0-8 lead.

From this point onwards, Eastleigh began to dominate the rest of the half; James Mitchell and Ryan Kelly both bulldozed over for a try each and these were followed up by a brilliant solo effort from Adam Gallagher who raced down the right flank for the score.

The home side’s superb discipline began to pay off as Eastleigh were the ones who were rewarded with a penalty in which Matt Lovell converted to take a 22-8 lead into half time.

Eastleigh’s defence was tested in the second half but they were able to turn defence into attack very quickly; Will Rigglesford cleared the ball long and Adam Gallagher managed to gather, kick ahead and dot down for another fantastic individual effort.

Panos Logothetis and Dan Henry continued to break the gain line when in attack and as James Mitchell floated the ball out wide to Matt Lovell, he was able to beat the covering defence to score in the corner.

These scores extended the home side’s advantage to 32-8 before the travelling side fought back with two tries of the own to reduce the deficit to a final score of 32-18.

Man of the match: Panos Logothetis

Match Report by Joshua Devereux