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"Winchester Escape from Jail!"

"Winchester Escape from Jail!"

Peter Upton22 Feb 2015 - 17:16
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London Division II South West Winchester - 18pts -v- Warlingham 17pts

London Division II South West

Fielding a strong side Warlingham travelled into Hampshire hopeful of turning the tables on the third placed Winchester who shaded the first encounter at Hamsey Green. The visitors had hardly taken the field when Winchester had a scrum inside the Warlingham twenty two and their second heave gave them quick ball which their backs passed well and scooted through the midfield for a soft converted try.

This stirred Warlingham and No 8 Tom Street did his archetypal
'bull in a china shop' charge and took on the whole of the home side pack. Centre David Priest made a
hole in the home midfield, Brad Saffery chipped ahead and gathered cleanly. A pass to outside half Joe McEvoy and he deftly
punted ahead. Newly signed winger Ollie Reynoldson collected and squirmed over for a try in the corner. The tramline conversion was successful from McEvoy and Warlingham realised they were in with a shout.

Prop Lewis Unsworth featured in many Warlingham drives and lock Neil Robson belied his mature years and danced through the defence. With flanker John Dowling and prop Alex Nunn doing the tough groundwork defending Warlingham denied the big Winchester pack any easy yards. Against the run of play Winchester converted a penalty but, after concerted pressure Warlingham got the ball to the elusive Saffery who broke a tackle for the second try, converted by McEvoy, which gave the visitors the lead. Winchester clawed back to within one point with a penalty despite Saffery saving a certain
try with an ankle low tackle.

Warlingham clung on to the lead for the second and third quarters and looked to be close to scoring on several occasions. Stout defence and some white line fever denied Warlingham further scores but they well deserved to be in the lead until late in the game when Winchester used their well rehearsed pick 'n drive tactics to move close to the try line. Time and again Warlingham's defence held firm but in the slippery conditions Winchester eventually burrowed over for a try to give them the slender one point lead.

With just six minutes left on the clock Warlingham tried every trick in the book to regain the lead. Winchester defended
well but gave away several penalties, including an eye-level tackle which felled teenage winger Declan Williams. McEvoy tried
the long kick at the posts but it fell short. Yet another transgression from Winchester gave McEvoy a last-play shot at goal.
Again it was a difficult kick in the swirling wind and despite a valiant effort the ball went wide and Winchester jumped for joy and
breathed a sigh of relief knowing they had Lady Luck on their shoulder.

After the game Warlingham coach, Ben Stobart said, "This was ironically one of our best performances all season and we definitely
deserved more than just the losing bonus point. But that's another learning curve for us and we'll move forward to next week and
have to keep improving."

Next Saturday Warlingham take on Portsmouth at their Hamsey Green home after the annual 'Golden Oldies' lunch where 180
former players get together and relive the highlights of their career.

Warlingham: Nunn, Scutt, Unsworth, Robson, Thornton, Dowling, King, T Street, Dennelly, McEvoy, Osborne (capt), Saffery, Priest,
Reynoldson, Agate, Ioannou, Townsend, Williams

# # On Sunday 1st March Warlingham host a Surrey RFU 'Girls Pitch Up and Play' where around 140 girls will try the ladies game.
Women's Head Coach Wayne Sandford invites any girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to just turn up at 12.30pm and, even if they've never played rugby before, to have a go. Free refreshments will be served after the session and the important Ireland -v- England Six Nations game will be screened through the Clubhouse.

All welcome to watch and cheer on England!

Further reading