A PATCHED-UP Hampshire came close to pulling off a dramatic, albeit undeserved, victory in their opening County Championship Plate match against Dorset & Wiltshire.

The twin counties held on to claim a 38-31 success at Trojans after leading 31-7 early in the second half, and were comfortably positioned in the final quarter after they posted a sixth try.

But as the visitors tired, Hampshire stepped up a gear to run in two quick responses through Havant pair Liam Davenport and Neil McGovern.

And although there were plentiful chances late on, Dorset & Wiltshire held on for victory that means Hampshire must win their remaining games against Somerset and Surrey to have any chance of progressing.

Team manager Steve Appleby said: "There's likely to be about six changes for next week's game in areas were we need to pull things together. We didn't deserve to get stuffed but we didn't deserve to win either," he said.

"We had the players here today but they didn't play as a unit until Dorset tired. Had we played them with a full team out, we would have given them a sound beating."