Warriors back to winning ways…

Saturday 24th November

By Matt Aristizabal

Back at home for the first time in three weeks, London South Africa were looking to avenge last week’s narrow defeat. Although they started nervously, the Warriors were quick to kick off the scoring when Louis van Zyl’s great break led to a Tom Howells try (Van Zyl with the conversion) on 9 minutes. Howells then broke the line well and the backs spread the ball well for the returning Gary Johnston to make it 12-0. Gosport & Fareham began to hit back but couldn’t beat the LSA defence, who then went up the other end and put more points on the board through Johan Strydom.  The away side continued to try their best were always competitve, but a break by man-of-the-match Brad Hall gave Trevor Grundelingh the chance to score and Van Zyl’s conversion made it 24-0. A great individual try by Tom Lloyd followed, and the half’s scoring finished with Van Zyl’s conversion on 36 minutes.

Gosport & Fareham started the second half brightly and took advantage of an overlap by going over in the first few minutes. They continued to work to get back into the game. The cold wind wasn’t helping the handling, but in the 54th minute good work from a scrum gave Howells the chance to score his second (Van Zyl again with the conversion). LSA began to click and Hall broke brilliantly from near his own line which led to a Ryan King score, and three minutes later Van Zyl got the chance to add seven points as he converted his own after hitting a gap well. In the final quarter the match was already over and as Gosport & Fareham tried to make their tally more respectable Grundelingh scored a great intercept try.  Grundelingh completed his hat-trick three minutes later to make it 60-5. Gareth Williams rounded off a great win with almost the last action of the game as it finished up 65-5.

“Today was a step up from the Warlingham performance. We dominated in all facets of the game, held our structure and shape, and played the game like we can. We imposed ourselves on the opposition and they didn’t have an answer - I’m pleased with the way we managed the game.” Head Coach, Bob Crooks, also had special mention for KWV Wines Man-of-the-Match Brad Hall; “That was his last game for the club before he goes back home, he was the best number 8 in the league and will be sorely missed.”