Bournemouth II 5 - Ellingham and Ringwood 37

We travelled the short distance to Chapel Gate on Saturday to play Bournemouth's 2nd XV who were sat just below us in Hampshire Counties Division 1.

We got off to a fine start and after sustained pressure from our forwards, Bournemouth strayed off-side and our winger Chris Frost kicked a penalty goal in front of the posts to give us a three point lead. Bournemouth fought back immediately and after some good interchanges, their number eight John Beswick dived over a ruck from a metre out to give them the lead, but they were unable to get kick the conversion.

This stirred us into action and following good drives from our forwards, Bournemouth strayed off-side again and Chris Frost kicked another penalty from in front of the posts to restore our lead. Our forwards were dominating the scrums and mauls and this took us within five metres of the try line. The home team's defence went to sleep and our centre Ben Carey (pictured) sneaked down the blind side from a ruck to give us our first try, but Chris Frost was unable to convert from out wide.

We then stepped up a gear and some great interchanges led to Ben Carey slipping a pass to his fellow centre Ali Bennett, who scored under the posts. Chris Frost was able to kick the conversion to extend our lead. It was then the turn of our hooker Pat Fraser, who had an excellent game, to take off on one of his surging runs and he smashed through several tackles to score our third try of the game, which again Chris Frost was able to convert to give us a 25-5 lead at the break.

Our coach Kieran Spencer brought last season's 1st XV captain Henry Benson on for Brad Evans for the second half, which was a closer affair, although Bournemouth did not add to their score line and had few visits into our twenty two. Pat Fraser started the second half as he ended the first by scoring his second try after another surging run, which allowed Chris Frost to kick another easy conversion. As in the first half, we were dominating the set pieces and prop Josh Berry smashed through some poor tackling to give us our fifth try and secure an important bonus point victory over our local rivals. The final score was 5-37, which moved us up into 8th place, above our other local rivals New Milton. After four hard fought defeats this was welcome news, before we travel to Eastleigh next week for our rearranged league fixture.