Salisbury 10 - Wimborne 38
Salisbury welcomed old friends and Dorset & Wiltshire rivals, Wimborne to Castle Road on Saturday. Both teams sit in the bottom third of Regional 2 South Central. It was therefore, reasonable to have expected a closely contested match but it was Wimborne who established early dominance with a converted try on four minutes on their way to a 15 – 38 away win.
Salisbury responded positively to the early setback and were rewarded with a penalty on nine minutes which Tom Tully converted. With score at 3 – 7 Wimborne dominated territory. Salisbury’s poor midfield tackling enabled the visitors to gain momentum and sustain pressure. They stretched their lead to 3 - 10 with a converted penalty in the 19th minute. However, the hosts were able to breakout and score after a Wimborne fumble was hacked through for James Kennedy to gather and move the ball for Theo Andre-Browning to score. Tully added the extras and Salisbury were back on terms in the 29th minute. The visitors were reduced to 14 men after a yellow card but despite this, momentum did not swing towards Salisbury. During the final ten minutes of the first half the hosts were also reduced to 14 men. They then conceded a converted penalty and three unanswered tries giving Wimborne a 10 – 30 halftime lead.
Matters did not improve for Salisbury during a largely scrappy second half. They received their second yellow card on 50 minutes and never really looked like overcoming Wimborne’s physical dominance. The hosts were however courageous in defence. Thwarting a number of clear scoring opportunities which restricted Wimborne to a single unconverted try and a penalty.
Despite the scoreline, Tully and Will Murley worked tirelessly to break Wimborne’s hold on the match. The hosts were eventually rewarded in final few minutes when they broke from an attacking scrum. Murley injected some pace and created space for Kennedy to score and reduce the deficit to 23 points. A disappointing outcome following recent victories over Witney and Reading.
Salisbury will take a break next week but will resume league action away to Farnham on 2nd December.
Immediately before kick-off the teams observed a minute silence in honour of Salisbury’s John Hill who passed away during the week. John was instrumental in setting up the club's Minis section and served the club in many ways over the years.
Joe Cooper
