VENTNOR 9, IW 7

RIVALRY ruled as two Isle of Wight teams played a fierce derby day match on Saturday.

The game was set to be physical and tough — and it didn’t disappoint.

IW gave a fairly disappointing first-half performance and Ventnor maintained possession well, forcing Isle of Wight to defend for long periods of time.

Ventnor’s AJ Wells man of the match Dom Marsh impressed massively on debut, playing out of position, and one of his carries resulted in a penalty which Riches turned into three points.

Another penalty resulted in another three points for the home team and they led 6-0 at half time.

On the restart, Isle of Wight were transformed and it was their turn to apply some pressure, engineering line breaks from McQueen, Webster and Warvill.

However, the support was not quite there at the crucial moments and Ventnor’s defence was able to intervene.

Eventually, the support arrived and a flowing move saw replacement Rann stopped short before Blackman showed great presence of mind to dive over from the ensuing ruck.

Murray landed the angled conversion and IW had a one-point lead.

Isle of Wight now looked the more likely and built a couple of threatening attacks, but did not capitalise.

With three minutes left, Ventnor gained a penalty outside and ex IW player Ricky Keyes took the strike — Ventnor took the lead 9-7.

In the final few minutes, the home side managed to secure possession after the restart and kept the ball until the clock was in the red.

For Isle of Wight, Rouse Ltd man of the match was James Webster and Keyes won the Biffa award.

For Ventnor, Red Funnel moment of the match went to Andy Teague.

Ventnor: Keyes, Jones, Pratt, Teague, Green, Pickard, Edwards, Colson, Clarke, Riches, Dawson, Gough, Hill, Marsh, Babington, Savill, Morley, Blake.

Isle of Wight: Sweetman, Reed, Warvill, L Blackman, Ormerod, Murray, Marriott, Puzey, McQueen, Newnham, Boulter, Blackburn, Lynch, Webster, Brown. Replacements: G Smith, Rann, Bennett.