Battersea beaten as Chichester start rugby season with win

There were 1st XV debuts for Owen Tucker and Eddie Bakaniceva in the forwards, Rabale Napolioni and Josh Vakasisikakala in the backs with Tom Whitehouse on the bench.

Battersea kicked off up the slope with the early exchanges in the Blues’ half. After 8 minutes the visitors’ outside centre ran an unstoppable line to breach the Chichester defence and dot down. Converted, 0-7.

Battersea put the Blues’ backs under pressure and won a penalty on the 10m line which was slotted between the posts, 0-10 and only 10 minutes gone.

Chichester upped the tempo and, with a significant advantage in the scrum, contained the opposition in their own half without crossing the whitewash.

A Battersea infringement in front of the posts, 20 metres out, allowed Gareth Davies the opportunity to get points on the board, 3-10.

With five minutes left in the half, Eddie Jenkinson burst through before being stopped on the 22m line. The ball was recycled and passed wide to Rhys Thompson who drew the defenders and offloaded inside for Napolioni to score on his debut. Conversion missed, 8-10 at half time.

After 4 minutes the referee produced his yellow card and Blues were temporarily down to 14. However, that didn’t stop Napolioni scoring his second try three minutes later.

On the Battersea 10m line Bakaniceva picked up the ball, from the base of the scrum, beat one man and passed to Matt McLagan who deftly flicked the ball on to Napolioni.

The winger beat two defenders in the corner and dotted down. Conversion missed, 13-10.

Then it was the turn of another debutant, Vakasisikakala, to get on the scoresheet. Ross Miller collected a clearance kick on the left wing and received it back from Eddie Jenkinson before passing to Vakasisikakala who cut inside the last defender to score under the posts. Converted by Davies, 20-10.

Battersea moved the ball into the Chichester red zone and wave after wave of pick and goes were repelled before a long looping pass was flicked on and dotted down. An excellent conversion made it 20-17.

Ross Miller, Tom Whitehouse, Davies, McLagan and Richard Ives and Stee Vasuturaga combined well before Napolioni ran through the Battersea defence to score his third try, converted by Davies. 27-17.

Less than 40 seconds later McLagan crossed the line, next to the posts, for the fifth try. Converted by Davies, 34-17.

It was a scrappy end but both teams competed to the whistle and the fitness levels were a testament to both sets of coaches’ training regimes. Fans’ MoM: Rabale Napolioni.

On Saturday, Chichester travel to Old Reigatians and the twos entertain Alresford at Oaklands Park (3pm).​​​​​​​