'It was pretty equal colours at the end - it was just a shade of brown' - Gosport & Fareham stand tall in tricky conditions to mark long-awaited playing return with Chichester 2nds victory

Gosport, playing their first fixture of 2022, went 7-0 behind in the early exchanges before scoring seven tries as a run of 45 unanswered points saw the second-placed side keep the pressure on leaders Havant 2nds.

Conditions were far from ideal, with very little grass to be seen on a muddy Oaklands Park playing surface given the constant rainfall throughout the match and in the days leading up to the fixture.

But Pollard took great comfort from the way his troops performed to produce an 11th league win in 12 matches this season - even though it proved difficult to pick the players apart at the end with all involved on the pitch sharing an 'equal shade of brown colour' after battling in the mud for 80 minutes!

The Gosport head coach said: ‘To be able to score 45 points in conditions like that, the boys were really happy with that, and I’m really pleased.

‘There are still some work-ons and things we need to brush up on ready for next week and the rest of the season, but I can’t really complain at a 45-7 win having been down seven points.

‘Afterwards walking off the pitch, I think it was pretty equal colours at the end - it was just a shade of brown.

‘Chichester were a good team, it was definitely a different team from what we played at home, we played them at home in very similar conditions, albeit in September time, when it was just torrential rain.

‘They (Chichester) played some really good rugby and the boys defended well. If we’d have thought the game was over at any point Chichester would have got back in and scored some points.’

Gosport, returning to competitive action after an extended 32-day festive break, were shocked into life after conceded an early converted try to fall 7-0 behind.

And battle back they did, with Tim Snowden, Kieran McRoberts and Alex Duncombe, who converted his own score, all going over in the first-half as the visitors opened up a 19-7 advantage at the interval.

The tries continued to flow in the testing conditions after the restart as Snowden grabbed a second, Samuel Gee went over then Ash Wakefield contributed a further two scores in the closing stages to wrap up Gosport's 45-7 win on the road.

Gosport return to action at Gosport Park this weekend with eighth-placed Eastleigh 2nds are the visitors on Saturday.