Once again Salisbury Rugby Club was well represented with Liam Gilbert, Tom Pottage and Sean Barwick in the starting XV and Luke Esnouf, Dave Thorpe and Terry Gilmour on the bench. The Twin Counties started strongly with a try for Bournemouth scrum-half Sam Hardcastle after only four minutes. This was followed five minutes later by a try from Sean Barwick who added a second after another five minutes. All were successfully converted by Counties'captain, Swindon fly-half Adam Westall to give them a 21-0 lead. An ugly incident saw Counties' number 8 sent off after 20 minutes. Tries from Liam Gilbert and fullback Simon Lilley (Bournemouth) and a penalty from Westall against two tries for Essex made the half-time score 36-12 in Counties'favour.

The second half was largely scrappy. Counties scored three further tries, including one from Salisbury's Dave Thorpe, which appeared to put the match out of sight. Essex continued to contest strongly however, and towards the end of the game the strain of playing for an hour with 14 men took its toll on Counties and gaps started to open. Essex scored three tries in the last ten minutes, but it was nowhere near enough to overhaul Counties' lead. The final score was Dorset & Wilts 62, Essex 37.

John Palmer