Royal Navy Rugby League 16:50 Blackpool Panthers

The first time Royal Navy RL had made the Challenge Cup 3rd Round saw the Blackpool Panthers travel to the south coast to take on the RNRL ‘Brothers’. On a glorious sunny albeit cool day RNRL put up a brilliant performance against the highest ranked team ever to visit Portsmouth going down 16-50 after a thoroughly entertaining match. The visitors were fast out of the blocks scoring two converted trys within the first five minutes one two influential prop Andy Hobson and the first of three in the day t Casey Mayberry. Despite this poor start RNRL got themselves back into the game managing to retain much needed possession and settled well as the game progressed. The reward came after only 10 minutes, a neat grubber by stand of Botwood evaded the defence and John Humphrey took a difficult ball to score out wide. Provider Botwood then landed a fantastic touchline conversion to reduce the deficit. Mayberry crossed for his second try after 20 minutes but this time Hemingway failed with the conversion attempt. The second quarter was the RN best patch of the game, Blackpool without the guidance of Prop Hobson found themselves on the back foot for much of the period the RN reward for this pressure was a well taken try for left Centre Tom Boyce, Botwood adding the extras. This score followed a tense few minutes of play resulting in Ref Bob Everitt showing yellow cards to a man from each side as the game threatened to boil over. The second half stared in much the same as the first; the Visitors pressed for early scores and were rewarded with trys for McCully and a second for Mayberry, both convered by Tom Hemingway. The next 20 minutes sealed the game for the Panthers, despite much Endeavour RNRL were held back by a succession of penalties giving the visitors the possession they needed. Hobson bagged his second try whilst Mayberry completed his hat trick and with further scores for Damien Munro, Johnny Leather, and Kurt Haggerty as well as a further three conversions for Tom Hemingway Blackpoll had reached the fifty point mark. The final word however went to RNRL a break on the right saw John Humphrey put Aaron Hansen away who beat the first line of defence and outstripped the cover to go over to the right of the posts with another conversion for Botwood the final score was 16:50.

United Services Sports Ground, Burnaby Road Portsmouth

Royal Navy
Dane Smallbone
John Humphrey
Tim Vonderavalu
Tom Boyce
Aaron Hansen
Kev Botwood
Wayne John
Jamie Goss
Johnny Platt
Lewis Taylor
Mark Robinson
Gareth Cadmore
Danny Johnson (C)
Subs
Ben Taylor
Richard Sharp
Manasa Tamoi
Lee Jones
Coach Wayne Okell
Scorers:- Humphrey(10), Boyce (30) Hansen 72) Goals Botwood (2) Conv

Blackpool Panthers
Johnny Leather,
Damien Munro,
Casey Mayberry
Martin Ainscough,
Paul Ballard,
Carl Forber
Tom Hemingway
Kris Ratcliffe
John Clough
Peter Fairhurst
Andy Hobson
Mark McCully
John Boland
Kurt Haggarty
Subs
Martin Keavney
Paul Anderson
Paul Alcock
Simon Svabic
Coach Martin Crompton
Scorers:- Hobson (2 &48) Mayberry (4, 20, 58), McCully (45), Munro( 62) Leather (69) Haggerty(72) Goals Hemmingway (7) Convs

Officials: Referee: Mr Bob Everitt
HT: 12:16
Weather Cool, Dry, Breezey Bright
Sin bins Goss (RN) 35 McCully (B/Pool) 35
MOTM - RN Taylor- B/poolClough
Attendance 300