A determined and at times superb Winchester won 14–32 away at Newbury to get back to winning ways.
“This is a place where we have never won” said Coach Gaz Martin after his team put in a convincing performance against Newbury Blues. “Newbury are very proud men, very tough and it’s clear how much it means to them to play here today.”
In a game which mattered to both sides, Winchester sought to put the recent last-minute defeat behind them. This was ‘Operation Bounce-back’ and they certainly had the artillery to kick them into a territorial advantage. Blues barely left their twenty-two in the first half as half backs Josh Tolan and Tom Fieldsend gave Winch territorial advantage.
Winchester were quick to turn territory into pressure and the Blues were outmuscled on the gain line. Jake Hiscock and Tom Forster repeatedly sliced their defence open and eventually they were burned out wide as Fieldsend touched down. Tommy Hare scored the difficult conversion.
It could have been a perfect forty minutes, but the game was becoming tainted with lots of minor niggles, both sides accumulating a significant number of penalties. Winchester No 8 Jacob Culley-Wilson was shown the first of four yellow cards, two for each team. Two penalty kicks by the reliable Hare put Winch into a 0-15 lead at half time.
Winchester’s inspirational captain Matt Golding drove the restart ball into the Blues half. An attacking scrum by Winchester fizzed the ball to replacement George Ward who scythed 30 metres through the scrambling defence. He was eventually pulled down, but Winch kept possession, moving the ball to Culley-Wilson who dummied his way through to score under the posts.
As Newbury searched for a way back into the game, they began to play heads up running rugby that knocked Winchester backwards and Blues scored through No 8 Josh Winfield. The conversion made it 7–20.
Winchester were quick to turn defence into attack and the restart ball found its way into the hands of Culley-Wilson who ran all of thirty metres to score his second try of the day. The conversion was missed 7–25.
Blues continued their attacking play, and Winchester finally conceded a try to wing Harry Cooper, the conversion making it 14–25.
With the clock ticking down it was all about the bonus point. Winchester repeatedly hammered at the try line until a foul play by Blues prompted a penalty try – seven points and no way back for Newbury. Coach Martin concluded “The way our front five responded in the last five minutes; I can’t speak highly enough of them. The sheer work rate today was absolutely fantastic.” This excellent away win will be followed by a home match against North Dorset next week.
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