Winchester 1st XV up to third in the Regional South Central League, with 112 points scored advantage and five winner’s bonus point after four matches.

Last Saturday Winchester were at home to Salisbury, whom they had not played for 21 years. 

Winchester were fast out of the blocks, and after only five minutes inside centre Greg Sullivan touched down close to the posts. Fly-half Tommy Hare’s conversion made it 7-0, writes Tim Fell.

Referee Dean Crossley pinged Winchester for a penalty, and Salisbury fly-half Tom Tully stroked the ball over from 40 metres out. 7-3.

But that was to be the last time Salisbury troubled the Winchester Under-7s operating the scoreboard. 
20 minutes into the match Winchester’s fly-half Tommy Hare kicked a penalty to bring the score to 10-3.

Then Salisbury outside centre Christopher Vuki was shown a yellow card by Mr Crossley, and only three minutes later their full back Eramasi Ranatora joined him on the naughty step. Hare’s penalty brought the score to 13-3.

With Salisbury down to 13 men, it was no surprise that Winchester scored their first try. Inside-centre Jake Hiscock made a searing break up the middle and offloaded out of the tackle to allow blind-side flanker George Porter to touch down in the corner. Hare’s conversion attempt failed.

Hare rounded off the first half with another penalty, and the two teams and their coaches went into their huddles with the score at 21-3.

Three minutes into the second half, Hare added another penalty to his tally, and five minutes later Sullivan scored his second try, with Hare’s conversion making it 31-3.

Then to his chagrin Hare was shown yellow by Mr Crossley and scrum-half Tom Fieldsend took over kicking duties. Tries followed for captain and No 8 Matt Golding after a 60-metre break by hooker Jimmy Wallis, winger Rhys Thomas and Hiscock, the first converted by Fieldsend and the other two by Hare after his return to the fray.

“Man for man, Salisbury were a bigger team than us”, said coach Gaz Martin after the match. “But as the match went on we got stronger, and our front row in particular deserve high praise. And what a delight to see 17-year-old Rhys Thomas, who has come up through our Minis, Juniors and Academy, make his first-team debut on the wing and fit in so well.” 

Winchester are now third in the RFU’s Regional 2 South Central league, with a scoring total of 185-73 and four try bonus points. They have no match this weekend.