On Sunday afternoon Salisbury Colts entertained Wimborne at Castle Road in the Under 18s Cup fixture. Despite the recent wet weather the pitch was in good condition and everything looked good for an entertaining afternoon’s game of Rugby.

This was the Teams second fixture in two weeks with Salisbury losing to Wimborne at Wimborne the previous weekend in horrendous conditions. Both were very keen to make their mark on the fixture so performance from the kick off was important. Salisbury received the ball and mounted a very early strong attack that fell just short of scoring. From the subsequent scrum Wimborne returned the compliment on Salisbury but their attack ended in an unconverted try. This set the stage for the first half with both sides battling hard for the game. Wimborne had the early edge in Rucks, Scrums and Lineouts making them able to put together a series of attacks with only the fierce defending by the Salisbury that kept Wimborne out but after nearly half an hour of play Wimborne, in a Maul, pushed Salisbury over the line for the second Wimborne try. The fact that Wimborne pushed them over their line added fire to Salisbury’s game and from the restart they put in a furious attack which ended in a try for Centre Boyd Rouse which was converted by Fly Half Marcus Beer. From that point Salisbury started to take the upper hand and put together some very good phases of play and convincing attacks but failed to turn the play into points. Wimborne were also working hard and attacking as hard as Salisbury, only the strong Salisbury defence prevented a series of tries but Wimborne did manage one more score before half time punishing some loose play and broke down the Wing to score their third try just on half time. Salisbury went in the wrong side of a 7:19 score line but from their performance at the end of the half time it looked like Salisbury were going to catch Wimborne but a win seemed unlikely.

Salisbury took the restart, chased the ball well, and contested at the Ruck that formed, won it, scrum half Williams got the ball out to Beer who broke the Wimborne line and off loaded to Brendan Musgrave who scored Salisbury’s second try converted by Beer. What then followed was almost a repeat of Salisbury’s win against Swanage and Wareham when they put up the most tenacious performance I have seen in a long time. With a change of pace across the squad, Salisbury started to dominate Wimborne defeating them in the majority of Rucks, Mauls, Line outs and Scrums, playing with confidence and style. When Wimborne did have possession they couldn’t break the Salisbury defensive line and travelled sideways rather than towards the Salisbury line often loosing the ball in an error or ruck. After a furious period of play another good break from a Ruck and fast hands from Beer put the backs through and enabled Musgrave to cross the line for Salisbury’s third try converted by Beer to take the lead. Much more of the same followed with the Salisbury pack holding and defeating Wimborne in set pieces and the blistering defence just stopping Wimborne flat every time they looked like putting phases together. On the half hour of the second half following a battering of the Wimborne defence on their line Williams darted through from a Ruck to score Salisbury’s fourth try, converted by Beer to give him a strike rate of 100%. Both sides contested right up to the final whistle with Wimborne ending the game with an unconverted try, final score was 28:24 to Salisbury who will now face Swanage and Wareham in the next round.

It is difficult to pick out individuals in this true Team performance, credit must go the Salisbury Front Row of Paffett, Kay and Edwards who consistently bested the Wimborne Scrum, again the voice of James Richards from in the Scrum encouraging the pack, Jake Williams at Scrum Half and the kicking game and 100% strike rate of Fly Half Marcus Beer but in fact this was another true Team performance from the Colts of which the Club can be proud.