The match held at Havant Rugby Club in aid of Harry Magee raised over £1,500
A packed-out Havant Rugby Club saw the University of Portsmouth Men’s Rugby 1’s win in style against Southampton 1’s to seal victory boosting our varsity score going into a jam-packed weekend. The match was moved from the usual well-attended last fixture of the Varsity weekend to allow more spectators to watch the game.
The game dubbed ‘Match for Magee’ was held to raise money for former University of Portsmouth Men’s Rugby President, Harry Magee who suffered life-changing injuries on New Year’s Eve. The event saw donations being made throughout the evening with a huge thank you to the University of Southampton Rugby Club and all their supporters for donating so generously. Collectively, £1,560 was raised through donations that will be given to Harry Magee to support his rehabilitation.
Over 800 students, staff, family and friends were in attendance to watch the match take place, the highest attendance for a single Varsity fixture in the history of the competition. University of Portsmouth Men’s Rugby President, Veli Bulbul, said:
As a club we are very thankful to everyone who turned up and showed their support to us but more importantly for Harry, he is a massive part of our club and Team UOP, so being able to give back to him and support him and his family with the money raised at the event meant a lot to us at the rugby club!
Veli Bulbul, Rugby Club President
Our sincere thanks go to Havant Rugby Club for hosting the event for the first time as the popular fixture has moved away from the main Varsity weekend. We’d also like to extend our thanks to our sponsors Carrington West, our pitchside physio’s SouthCoact RX Physio and Team Security for their support during the event.
The match kicked off and was a fairly tense affair with Portsmouth being awarded a penalty early on. Goldie stepped up to put the ball through the sticks to kick off the scoring, 3-0. Pompey pushed on wanting more and broke the defence finding a gap to get the first try of the game, and majestically converted to make it 10-0 to UPRFC. Southampton not wanting to make it easy pushed hard and made it through the Pompey defence to make it 10-5. Halftime came and the UPRFC boys solidified what they already knew. Southampton after getting a try before halftime would be pushing hard to level up the game. The boys came out from the changing rooms with fire in their bellies not wanting to give Southampton that advantage.
Pompey pressure was being applied and out of nowhere, another try. 15-5. Southampton had some good possession and made it difficult for Pompey but the defence stayed strong and gave the platform for UPRFC to go on the attack to get the fourth try of the game, 20-5. Finishing in style, the final try of the game saw the mighty men secure the win to make it 25-5. UPRFC stormed the pitch to celebrate with the players who drew the Varsity competition level after previous wins earlier in the day from Equestrian.
Team University of Portsmouth 16 - Team University of Southampton 16, which makes for an exciting start to the weekend. Next up on Friday, Netball and Table Tennis take on Southampton at Ravelin Sports Centre and the Destroyers take on the Stags at Langstone for a Friday Night American Football match up. The U2 bus will be running a special service on Friday night to get you to Langstone and back.
If for some insane reason, you don’t have your Varsity tickets yet we have a limited number available at Ravelin Sports Centre reception. Varsity tickets are £12 which includes access to all fixtures, Varsity Village and the official after-party. Day tickets are also available but only include access to spectate and access to Varsity Village.
Limited tickets for the remainder of Varsity are still on sale at Ravelin Sports Centre at £12 for the weekend plus extra access to the official after-party or £5 per day to see the best live-action sport.