Rugby club brought down with a bump

Devizes 34pts, Wimborne 8

AFTER the euphoria of last week's victory, Wimborne were brought back to earth with a bump at London Road on Saturday as Devizes completed a Southern Counties South double with a convincing six-try performance.

Fielding a much-changed back division Wimborne had to withstand an early Devizes foray but when the home team conceded a number of penalties this allowed the visitors to build an attack and James Mikolajewski opened the scoring with a penalty.

The lead was, however, short-lived as from the kick-off a wayward Wimborne clearance was gathered by Devizes who quickly mounted an attack and scored a try out wide. Five minutes later a kick ahead was fumbled by the Wimborne defence and gratefully hacked over the goal line for a converted try.

Devizes were now playing with supreme confidence and increased their lead with another try after 20 minutes after some weak tackling. Now under the cosh Wimborne conceded the bonus point try 10 minutes later when turnover ball was speedily moved wide and the overlap was utilised for a converted score.

As the half-time whistle approached Wimborne did mount an attack when the ball was moved wide for Wilkinson to make a long run. Devizes were only able to hold their line illegally and the referee was forced to flourish the yellow card. From the resulting tap penalty the visitors managed to work the ball wide for Mark Hopkins to score.

In the second-half Wimborne had more of the game but old failings such as poor decision making and poor line-outs prevented them from making much of a dent in the home defence. With 10 minutes left flanker Matt Morris was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle. From the resulting kick and line-out Devizes spun the ball wide and scored in the left corner. The final score came with the last play of the game when another strange penalty decision went against the visitors and Devizes scored a try.

Wimborne 2nd XV beat Oakmeadians 2nd XV 16-0 to go top of the league.