Ellingham & Ringwood 1st XV welcomed local South Coast rivals Bournemouth to their ground on a blustery rain soaked afternoon, but this did not deter a large crowd coming to watch what was an attritional game of rugby with both sets of players not backing down. Ellingham & Ringwood were able to welcome back some players from injury such as Alex O'Farrell and Mike Treloar in the forwards which was a boost to the home team. The home team were led out by mascots who braved the inclement weather from some of the players in the under 9's and under 10's minis section of the club.

The game was as mentioned hard fought throughout the 80 minutes, but it took Bournemouth who on paper were the favourites to win 19 minutes until they could breach the home teams defence when they got their first try of the game, which thankfully for Ellingham they were unable to convert. With the scoreline so close Ellingham took advantage of Bournemouth's continued ill-discipline towards the referee who made them retreat several metres to allow winger Lewis Reeves a chance to reduce the deficit, sadly in tricky conditions his kick sailed the wrong side of the posts allowing the visitors a sigh of relief that their misdemeanours went unpunished.

Ellingham fought hard and made in-roads into the visitors twenty-two, but the final ball did not quite go to hand or Bournemouth's defence remained solid so they could not trouble the scoreline. It was Bournemouth who were to double their lead in the 30th minute with a try in the far left hand corner of the pitch, again the conversion was not a success. Not long before half time Lewis Reeves was presented with another opportunity to kick a penalty to reduce the deficit for his team, although closer than the previous kick it was again just the wrong side of the up-rights. Making the half time score Ellingham & Ringwood 0 - Bournemouth 10.

Ellingham came out of the blocks flying this was helped by two very long kicks from a Bournemouth player that carried nearly the full length of the pitch over the home team's dead ball line to give Ellingham scrums deep inside Bournemouth's twenty-two. From one of these platforms prop Joshua Ajiboye powered his way over for his first try for Ellingham in the 45th minute, much to the delight of the home crowd, unfortunately for Lewis Reeves it was not to be his day with the boot and the conversion was missed.

Ellingham do not make life easy for themselves at times especially in the second half, when 3 players were shown yellow cards by the referee for various offences, perhaps with a full quota of players and the discipline they showed in the first half the contest could have been closer. It took Bournemouth another 10 minutes to extend their score, but as mentioned it was a difficult day for the kickers for both sides and the conversion was missed. With the numerical advantage Bournemouth extended their lead with a converted try in the 63rd minute and another try in the 70th minute. Ellingham battled hard throughout the game and lost a couple of players to injuries, but the replacements Matt Coombs, Chris Frost and Tyler Grant came on and played very well. This is testament to the coaching staff at the club who are teaching the players in all the teams how to play a certain style and method of rugby throughout the club so players can slot into any team they are selected for. So thank you Keiron, Matt, Higgo, Sammy and Paul for you time and effort into improving the rugby being played at the club and the improvements that is making to each player involved.

Picture: Tom Philpot - POTM