Calne travelled to Supermarine on a bad vibe which set the tone for the whole afternoon. With a few late withdrawals Saturday afternoon captain, Mike Charlwood, was forced to make a number of late phone calls to compensate for the shortage of forwards, as weel as a number of position changes. The last minute panic was compounded by a number of players failing to make the 12.30 meet, as such Calne arrived, at Supermarine, with 15 minutes to spare. With no warm up and some players still not knowing if they were playing or not, let alone where, it was no wonder that Marine started the stronger.

Marine came at Calne's pack with their pick and drive game and in no time at all forced Calne deep into their half. Calne's reshuffled pack, with Graham Neale moving from centre to the flank in his first season of rugby, slowly got to grips with Marine's tactics and countered with some sapping rolling mauls. Half backs, Donegan and Gladding, relieved the pressure and created some good attacking positions with some fine first half kicking.

Marine turned over a poorly controlled maul and countered through the backs. Fortunately for the Calne back line their opposite numbers lacked pace and a near interception would have given Calne the boost they so badly needed. Instead the catch was impossible and the knock on gave possession back to Marine. Who now picked up their game and started running at the fringes of rucks and mauls with great effect. The Marine forwards worked relentlessly and were help by poor first time tackling from Calne and broke the game line at will.

Despite Marine's forward domination in the loose and scrum Calne held their own in the line out and Graham Neale opened his line out account with a steal from the centre of the line. An irate Marine we penalised for foul play and Donegan opened the scoring to leave Marine rueing a missed penalty moments earlier.

Calne's pack tried to build some momentum but lacking the big guns and with some very poor decision making they were continuously turned over as the Marine pack started to build and control the game. The new, young, lads battled as best they knew how to the last but a lack of positional knowledge and with little in the way of encouragement from their peers all they could do was to make Marine work hard for their possession. Midway during the half Calne were penalised for an off side offence and the resulting penalty was scored to bring the game level.

Marine continued to probe the fringes successfully and were soon rewarded with a contested try given by the home touch judge. The difficult touch line conversion neatly taken. With so much at stake for Marine, with the prospect of relegation meaning that their 2nd team would have to withdrawal from the same league, it was no wonder Marine would take what ever action was required to ensure the win. Their grit, determination, commitment, motivation and leadership ensured they would give everything for the much need points. Conversely, Calne could only fall back on three of these factors as the prospect of demotion, although not relished, would create a more enjoyable atmosphere to bring the new guys on and build a team for future campaigns.

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