Counties 1 Hampshire rugby: Ellingham & Ringwood put 80 points past New Milton in Forest derby
Counties 1 Hampshire
Ellingham & Ringwood 84
New Milton 0
Ellingham & Ringwood welcomed local rivals New Milton to Parsonage Barn Lane and treated their large crowd to a phenomenal display of running rugby to which the visitors had no answer.
E&R were in complete control from the start, captain and scrum half Sammy Veneroso scoring the first try of the game after only five minutes. His brother Tom at fly half converted for the additional two.
Three minutes later flanker Ted Johnson scored in the corner after some good interplay with the forwards and backs to extend the home team's lead. Then in the 11th minute Ellingham's number 11 Hugo Leigh-Watts raced over on the opposite wing to score the home team’s third try.
With the Ellingham pack dominating, and a man-of-the-match performance from lock George Randall, they were setting up great platforms for free-flowing rugby. Defence coach Adam Higgins smashed through several New Milton players to score the fourth try of the game. Tom Veneroso was able to convert for the extra two points.
In the 25th minute Tom Veneroso saw a gap and scored a try which he then converted. Three minutes later full back Chris Jeffes cut an excellent line and dived over in the corner. The next try was scored by number eight Lewis Nicholls before, in the 32nd minute, Leigh-Watts scored his second from another well-worked move. Two minutes later flanker Chris Hancock sprinted from outside New Milton’s 22 to score under the posts, giving Tom Veneroso an easy kick.
Finishing an impressive first half, Tom Veneroso got his second try, which he converted, for a half time score of 53-0.
Four minutes into the second half, E&R’s replacement number eight powered through New Milton’s defence to score another, and shortly afterwards Tom Veneroso flew over to add to his tally. Sammy Veneroso then popped over for his second try in the 59th minute.
New Milton fought hard to stop the flow in the second half, but Ellingham and Ringwood powered on, Pat Fraser going through to score in the 66th minute.
Dan Stewart put the finishing touches to the score, diving over in the 78th minute for the 14th try of the game. Tom Veneroso added the two.