Hampshire Counties rugby: Ellingham & Ringwood retain local bragging rights over Fordingbridge

Hampshire Counties Division 2
Ellingham & Ringwood 18
Fordingbridge 16

Ellingham & Ringwood hosted their local rivals Fordingbridge at the Raymond Brown Memorial Ground in a thriller befitting the fixture.

Sadly, during the week John Rose, E&R's last surviving founding member and a character well known by both sides, passed away, so after a pre-match lunch for supporters both observed a minute's silence.

It was a spirited young Fordingbridge side who dominated the opening exchanges. E&R saw very little of the ball and ill-discipline from the home side led to the first score of the game when the visitors slotted over a kickable penalty after eight minutes.

Fordinbridge continued to dominate, and after 11 minutes their winger sprinted into the corner in front of a stunned home crowd to extend their lead with an unconverted try.

E&R started to put passages of play together and the ball was fed out to right winger Jack Kelly who avoided a number of tackles to score in the corner to reduce the deficit. His fellow winger Chris Frost converted from out wide to add the extra two points.

Fordingbridge fought back and, once again, ill-discipline from the home side led to the visitors having another kick at goal and they duly converted the penalty to extend their lead to 11 points.

Ellingham were to have the last say of an entertaining first half when Will Jenkins, playing in the centres, used his speed on the left hand-side of the pitch to dive over for the home team's second try of the game, Frost failing to add the two points from out wide.

Half time: Ellingham & Ringwood 12-11 Fordingbridge.

The second half was a tight affair as E&R pushed hard to extend their lead.

This time Fordingbridge were to be punished for ill-discipline, Frost with the penalty to extend the lead to 15 points.

Neither side could get through each other's defensive line to score what might have been a winning try, but with the clock ticking, another penalty was awarded to the home side.

Captain Henry Benson opted for another kick at goal, and with Frost receiving treatment for a knock, Andrew Kingswell took over the kicking duties. His effort just crept over the crossbar to extend the lead to 18 points.

In the last minute Fordingbridge's sustained pressure on E&R's try line finally told as their forwards managed to squeeze the ball over the line for their second try of the game.

Fordingbridge needed to convert to draw the scores level, but it flew just wide of the uprights.

There was still time for a restart, and Kingswell kicked deep with Ellingham rushing forward to apply pressure. With time running out, Kingswell kicked the ball into touch to give his side a hard-fought victory which meant they leap-frogged their opponents into fourth place.