The Galleon - Portsmouth's Official Student Newspaper

Portsmouth ride a Kent tackle. Photo by {credit}Sarah Jackson{/credit}.

Rugby Men’s 1st

Wednesday 19th January.

18-6

Rugby men’s 1st took on Kent men’s 1st in a game made scrappy by Kent’s lack of flair and ability.

At the start of play Kent sat bottom of the BUCS Rugby Union South Eastern Conference Men’s 1a table, a league comprised of eight teams, with three points. Portsmouth sat comfortably fourth with six points, although well behind the top three teams, all tied on 18. Portsmouth came into the game off the back of a close defeat to 3rd place Imperial College London, although they trounced St. Mary’s university College Men’s 22-0 the game before, and their superior quality shone through as they strolled to victory over their opponents who had only won one game in the league all season so far.

Ben Pryer was clinical with his hands, scoring both tries for Portsmouth in the first half, although his feet didn’t follow as he failed to convert either of them. No matter though, as Kent’s only opportunities came from two penalties which were similarly woefully missed by the Kent goal-kicker.

The first half brought good aggression from both sides with a yellow card for each team being issued.

Portsmouth easily dominated the first half but failed to pull away due to the missed conversions, and just after the start of the second half and due to the physical prowess and highly aggressive defensive work the south-coast team soon suffered another penalty, and this time Kent made no mistake, pulling the score back to 10-3.

The remainder of the half was patchy, with Kent securing yet another penalty to close the gap to four points, although they couldn’t push on as Portsmouth’s defensive work and aggression were the dominant features of this game. The Kent penalty was the only action of note until the last ten minutes, when Portsmouth secured the win with a try and a drop-goal from Mark Langford. This took the score to a comfortable 18-6.

The game was a stroll for Portsmouth but a good result nonetheless, especially considering the long Christmas break.

A Kent player commented in passing: “Jamie Lynch was the stand out player for Portsmouth”.