Blues pay penalty to fall to loss in Dorset
Wimborne 24 Chichester 22
Chichester gained a losing bonus point but might have come away from their trip to Dorset with more.
Travelling west for their first visit to Wimborne, the Blues made seven changes to the team that beat Reading.
Alex Einchcomb, Josh Cameron, Finlay Glass and Tom Whitehouse came into the pack, Luca Fleming joined the backs and Robbie Hawkshaw and Fin West were on the bench.
On a miserable afternoon, with persistent drizzle and a south westerly breeze blowing across a soft pitch, Chichester kicked off deep into Wimborne’s red zone.
In difficult conditions both teams resorted to the boot and on nine minutes Blues failed to kill a clearance kick on halfway allowing the Wimborne centre to kick on, win the foot race and score under the posts, converted for 7-0.
Almost immediately, the opposition lost a player to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on and Chichester used the one-man advantage to good effect, building pressure in the red zone over the next 10 minutes. A knockon gave Blues an attacking scrum and Josh Stops’ long pass was collected by Joel Andrews who scored out wide, 7-5.
Chichester conceded a penalty in kicking distance and Wimborne led 10-5.
With the weather deteriorating, another Chichester infringement allowed the hosts to increase their lead to 13-5.
The ball was cleared upfield and a dangerous tackle saw the referee produce a red card reducing Wimborne to 14 for the rest of the match.
At the start of the second half, three missed tackles in the middle of the pitch saw Wimborne score a great solo try out wide, 18-5.
Going further behind led to Chichester upping the tempo with 15 minutes of rugby in Wimborne’s half attempting to unpick the defence.
With the Blues’ pack dominant at the scrum, Stops launched another attack, with the ball travelling along the line to Andrews who was stopped just short.
It was recycled to Finlay Glass who crashed over the line to mark his first XV debut with a try, converted by Elliot Haydon making it 1812.
Wimborne increased the lead to 21-12 after another Blues’ infringement within kicking distance.
A knock-on gave Blues a scrum on halfway. The forwards advanced the ball with pick and goes before a change in direction wrongfooted the defence, allowing Zac Conley to make 20m.he threw the ball over the heads of two defenders to Stops who ran in for a try converted by Haydon, 21-19.
Then Chi moved the ball from their 22m line to Wimborne’s before an infringement stopped play allowing Haydon to slot the penalty – 21-22.
But the Blues’ solid scrum was penalised and walked back 10m for dissent. Wimborne threw the kitchen sink at Chichester and kicked the penalty to win the match. MOM was Huw Binfield.
Chichester host Farnham on March 2 (2.30pm).