Rugby Union: London League Division Two South

Winchester 13, Andover 6

It was not the sort of weather in which to play leapfrog at Nuns Road last Saturday, but Winchester managed it most effectively, as they moved above Andover in the league and out of the bottom three relegation places.

Digging deep, the hosts found that they've got what it takes to win after all and they fully deserved to. Unlike their last home league win against Cobham, they never remotely looked like letting this one slip.

Starting off in lively fashion, Winchester controlled the territorial battle, all the time looking the far hungrier of the two sides.

So it came as a surprise that they had to wait until the quarter-hour mark before going ahead from a Dan Kinsey penalty.

With Kinsey on the right wing and Andy Gilpin on the left to accommodate the return of long-time absentee, Dan Waddington, at full back, Winchester looked assured in defence and potent in attack. Added to which, Andover found the sniping runs of Andy Ashwin from fly half much more than they could handle.

Both sides were having trouble with the greasy ball, but the only thing that fitfully threatened to make this into a contest was the number of penalties Winchester are still prone to give away.

Full credit to them, however, they knuckled down to the task, kept battering away and just before half-time they scored. Rob West, whose impressions of a live eel are becoming legendary, gave Andover a reprise, as he slithered through to touch down just to the right of the posts. Kinsey's conversion was a formality.

A 10-0 half-time deficit flattered Andover, although they never gave up without a fight, sometimes literally.

The second half became a tetchy, niggling battle among the forwards as the rain and the gloom set in.

Here again, as he had done in the first half, Andy Ashwin kept his troops going forwards, then with sniping runs and now with raking touch kicks, his whole demeanour so different from that of recent memory.

Andover finally got three points on the board from a penalty, having changed their kicker. Scrum-half, Mitchell, potted one over, only to find his effort nullified by deadeye Dan Kinsey for Winchester.

The rest of the match should perhaps be buried, never to be exhumed, not that it was so bad but because it might embarrass the Andover faithful. Mitchell potted another three points before the end, but it mattered not a jot.

Andover's late rally was too little too late. In any case the threat was easily contained by the Winchester defence, in which Knight and Pervin excelled around the fringes of rucks and mauls.

Head coach, Mike Marchant, saved his singing for later, but was well pleased: "It's always hard to break a cycle of poor results and yet we did it today," he said. "I'm very satisfied with two valuable league points. Although we're still missing some injured players, we've proved that as a squad we're more than able to compete."