For the first 40 minutes we had the wind in our favour, but the teams were evenly matched through the first quarter. Poole broke the deadlock taking the lead through a penalty.

In the 25th minute Mark made a fine break and following his super off load we set up camp in the shadow of the home side's posts. A pick and drive by John Dossit brought him a try. Mark converted to put us 7 - 3 ahead.

Poole hit back almost immediately with an unconverted try following the award of a penalty on our 5 metre line.

On the half hour we are awarded a penalty following a scrum infringement and Mark was successful to take us 10 – 8 ahead which remained the half time score.

Now Poole had the wind at their backs and we were forced to play more with the ball in hand. This we did to good effect for the majority of the half, however before our best period, we were undone after 42 minutes when missed tackles allowed the home side to score two tries in 2 minutes, one converted to turn the deficit around and go 20 – 10 up.

This was followed by another penalty for Poole as their big pack won the battle for the ball on the ground.

Now followed our best patch in the game as a prolonged period of pressure saw us retain possession and constantly threaten the home defence with good continuity. Hugh scored an unconverted try in the 65th minute following a scrum on the Poole 5 metre line. 23 – 15 to the home team.

John got over the line again, but unfortunately in the act of touching down, the ball went forward. Try as we might the Poole defence held firm and then they broke away in the 75th minute to score another unconverted try which, from this observers eye, gave the final score line a slightly flattering look in favour of the hosts.