Tottonians 15 Chichester 3 – Report

Tottonians kicked off the new year with a dogged, battling display in defeating tenacious Chichester 15-3 on a blisteringly cold afternoon at Water Lane, keeping them in fourth place in the table after yet another difficult 24 hours for the coaches as players withdrew with the clubs’ nasty virus.

TOTTONIANS 15 CHICHESTER 3
Water Lane, Totton
Saturday 4th January 2025
Regional 2 South Central – match 13

It has been said that this performance had all the hallmarks of a typical Tottonians post-Christmas-New-Year hangover showing.  That is probably true but, given the upheaval that coaches had in selection once again and the wintry conditions to boot, to come out of this fixture with the win might be seen as a notable achievement.

Three players withdrew on Saturday morning with the virus that has cut through the club, one player was snowed in and Connor Andrews moved from openside flanker to wing to blindside flanker and back to wing all within two hours prior to kick-off!

The ever reliable Mark Amey was called to make his first 1st XV start since November 2022 while Alfie Filmore made his first ever start, having had four replacement appearances and Jonny Lovell was back in the pack having recovered from his arm injury suffered three months ago at Chichester.

The match passed a morning pitch inspection, following the heavy overnight frost but was perfectly playable by the time 2pm came around but it took both sides a while to get into their rhythm.

Chichester, without a win in their last seven games and sitting second bottom of the table, defended stoutly and occasionally looked dangerous on the counter attack as the early stages of the contest were fairly even.

The visitors were reduced to 14 on the quarter-mark when the experienced former Portsmouth and Petersfield player Tom Whitehouse was sinbinned for not retreating when Totts took a quick tap penalty and Robbie Searle got the scoreboard ticking with the simple penalty in front of the posts.

But it was the West Sussex side, who continued to belie their lowly league position, who were coming on strong and were only kept at bay by two crunching tackles from Andrews.  But they were not to be denied as full-back Rory Minton slotted a penalty to restore parity.

The last 15 minutes of the half was all Tottonians.  A quickly taken penalty by the returning Nic Jansen, as Chichester collapsed the scrum, set up a perfect attacking option and the ball was passed through the hands from left to right and back again but they were to be denied by conceding a penalty in front of the posts.

And it was a similar story just prior to the half-time whistle as Andrews sliced through the defence with ease and took his side to within 10 metres, where he was held.  A subsequent penalty and kick to touch set up a second wave but they were to be denied by being forced to turn the ball over which brought to an end the first period, a frustrating one for the hosts as the scores remained tied.

It felt like it was only a matter of time that Tottonians would break the Chichester resilience but it was often their own indiscipline – or otherwise, if you listen to the post-match interview with head coach Phil Osman – that ensured their line was unbroken.

Finally, after 57 minutes, the deadlock was broken.  Kevin Raqio, on as a replacement for the hard working Amey, and on for his 50th first XV appearance, found his way over from close range wide on the left, which came from a high tackle penalty in front of their own posts and it was swiftly passed out to the powerhouse prop to finally put his side ahead.

Nine minutes later and Tottonians made it two and surely saw the victory clinched after the tenacious Chichester side who had given their all.  Robbie Searle found himself on the end of a flowing passing move that he spun himself inside and out to find a way over the whitewash, adding the conversion to his own score.

Any hopes of clinching a try bonus point were halted by some more perceived indiscipline from the hosts, which resulted in Dylan Kirk receiving a yellow card for voicing his displeasure with a couple of minutes left on the clock and the final whistle came and the sizable crowd headed for the warmth of the clubhouse having endured the lowest scoring league fixture at Water Lane in 10 years since the 13-5 win over Brighton in London 1 South in November 2015 (there was a 3-6 defeat to Winchester at ‘home’ in February 2020 but that was played at Applemore with Water Lane flooded).

Most of all, it was job done even if it wasn’t the most edifying of contests!

TOTTONIANS POINT SCORERS:
1 try – Kevin Raqio (sponsored by Mr. Ray Hall)
1 try – Robbie Searle (available to sponsor)
1 conversion – Robbie Searle (available to sponsor)
1 penalty – Robbie Searle (available to sponsor)