With Port now serious contenders for promotion after beating the two sides above them in the league over the last two weeks it was imperative that we continued the excellent form and produced a bonus point win in this game.
Port dominated from the off, with the muddy conditions suiting Port’s pack we had plenty of ball for both forwards and backs to pressurise the sunlight line. Port’s first score came on 7 minutes from excellent pressure by the port forwards on a sunlight scrum fifteen out from their own line. Veteran flanker Jerry Philip charged down the attempted clearance kick and dived on the loose ball over the line, the conversion was added by stalwart fly half Paul Millington returning from injury. Within 5 minutes Port had added another score having again dominated the forwards play the ball was released to the backs and found its way to full back Ant Jones who outpaced the sunlight cover to score, 11 minutes played Port ahead 12-0. Sunlight then rallied and given opportunity by Port errors forced a series of lineouts and scrums in the port 22, Ports defence held strong and scrum half Dan Burns was instrumental in disrupting Sunlight ball from the scrum half. Having weathered the brief Sunlight pressure Port again pushed up field and a error by the sunlight full back under pressure from port backs Doyle and Joinson led to a Port lineout in the Sunlight 22. From the lineout the forwards drove close to release the Port Backs again, quick hands sliced open the Sunlight backs and Jones crossed the line for his second try, Millington added the extras, to make it 19-0 after 26 minutes. Once again just before the half hour Port forwards exerted constant pressure from scrums and lineouts in the Sunlight 22 and Veteran prop Ian Morris drove over in a rolling maul, with Millington converting Port led 26-0. This score ensured that Port were going to gain the bonus point win which is crucial to promotion hopes. Ports final score of the half came with a minute to go, winger Andy Tranter capitalising on possession to dive over on the wide left, the conversion was missed and at half time Port led 31-0 having hardly spent more than ten minutes in their own half in the first forty.
The second half was again dominated by Port it started well within 5 minutes of the restart Port number 8 James Callaghan barged through several weak Sunlight tackles from a well worked penalty move and scored, the conversion was missed. With the result never in doubt Port began to rest players and bring the substitutes on first on 45 minutes Hooker Craig Jones replaced 2nd Row Rob Hartill re-shuffling the pack and on 55 minutes veteran Millington was showing his lack of match fitness and was replaced by the experienced Phil Gow at standoff. The next ten minutes however belonged to Sunlight who capitalised on several Port errors and scored two converted tries of their own. During this time Port prop Morris was also replaced by Gareth Wallis in the front row. Port the steadied the ship and the match reverted to Port dominance. The game was rounded of nicely with Ant Jones notching his third of the day, and his second hat trick this season, on 76 minutes to make it 41-14, scrum half Burns added the conversion to make it 43-14 which is how it stayed until the final whistle.