On a bitterly cold day Fordingbridge entertained Salisbury III at the fortress, with a number of faces returning to the sky blue shirt. Young debutants Jordan Donaldson and Iestyn Williams particularly impressed, and we look forward to seeing more of them in the future.

With Salisbury electing to play into the wind in the first half, they must have felt they could emulate England’s performance of the previous night. The first half was played at a frenetic pace with both teams looking to play an attacking game, however, the scores were tied at nil all for the majority of the half. Fordingbridge just edged the set pieces, but Salisbury were dangerous throughout in open play with ‘bridge guilty of slipping off tackles, which put them under a lot of pressure.

Their luck finally broke when Salisbury finally crossed the whitewash, despite the attention of a number of would be tacklers.

Not to be out done ‘bridge spurred on by the evergreen Dave Gogin pressed Salisbury in their 22, young Peter Scott who is relishing his role of the General, sent Michael Parry on a hard line, and with quick ball spread wide, Sam Hawker returning after a long spell away from the game, finished a great team move.

Lungs burning, many thought that was going to be the end of the half, but the man in the middle had other ideas. With neither team willing the give an inch the game was played in the middle of the park, with nobody gaining any parity despite the valiant efforts of the impressive Anton Mayes who tackled fearlessly.

Half Time 5 – 7

Fordingbridge’s half time team talk despite being down by 2 points and facing the wind was positive, but a wakeup call would have been better as a misdirected touch kick was run back with vigour and the Salisbury player sauntered through the defence, like Noah parting the sea, without a finger being laid on him.

Fordingbridge’s squad of mixture of young and old didn’t give up all match, with the breakdown battle edging in their favour, they looked to capitalise on any errors Salisbury made, Graham Branagan was bossing his young charges and endless attempts were made to spread the ball to their flying wingers, but great cover defence prevented the final score from happening.

Salisbury were a very strong team and Fordingbridge will do well learn from this game, as there are not many teams who could keep playing at the pace they did for 80 minutes and in truth they thoroughly deserved their victory. The game was played in good spirit and refereed consistently, and all agreed it was a pleasure to play in despite the result!!
Fordingbridge scored a consolation try by MOM Alex Tattersall who put in a massive shift at the base of a solid scrum, converted by Dean Lewis.

More new faces and more returnees only bodes well for the future. The twos have a week off, take your other halves shopping, treat them to their Valentines dinner, as we have another local derby against the Dorset Dockers at Potterne Park on the 21st.