Not very friendly ahead of a vital game for Winchester

Winchester 5, Bournemouth 10

WINCHESTER tuned up for their crucial home game tomorrow against Gosport & Fareham with this friendly at Nuns Road last Saturday.

An experimental Winchester XV lost by two tries to one to Bournemouth, from the Southern Counties League, in an encounter that turned out to be anything but friendly. Indeed it soon became a scrappy, ill-tempered affair that will not live too long in the memory.

But although the result was meaningless, there were several positive individual performances to brighten an otherwise drab occasion.

And the visitors, too, were determined to take the fight to the opposition - albeit often literally. They set off as if eager to maul the understrength Winchester pack into submission and ultimately they did so. But their midfield backs were so lacking in invention that it nearly cost them the game when the hosts got their act together in the second half.

Bournemouth controlled territory and possession early on, going 5-0 ahead from a concerted forward effort. However, when Winchester won some decent possession, the backs threatened mayhem - a fact which prompted the visiting pack to deliberately wheel the scrums on Winchester's put-in. The hosts coped as best they could until the break. But after it, the whole team went up through the gears, and were rewarded with a try by Richard Knight from close range.

Nick Destefano went close on several occasions and for want of accurate final passes Winchester would have won this game comfortably. Richard Knight continued his masterclass in back row play, Andy Ashwin was all sorcery and darting runs and, as ever, Bernie Hooper tackled as if his life depended on it.

But just after the hour mark, Bournemouth won a lineout on the Winchester 10 metre line, setting up a ferocious driving maul that forced the hosts all the way back over their own line.

It was a moment that deserved to win a better match than this.