Winchester run out of steam after first half injury time killer blows

Winchester 19, Jersey 25

For the first half of this intriguing encounter at Nuns Road last Saturday, there was only one team at the races - and it wasn't the much-vaunted league leaders, writes Brian Postlethwaite.

During that time Winchester were irresistible. They played with such pace, passion and power that Jersey were shaken to their roots.

The hosts clinically built up a 19-nil lead which, had they taken it into the break, would surely have been insurmountable.

But therein lies the tale. In first half injury time, Mark White slotted a simple penalty for Jersey, who then found the home defence absent without leave as Steve O'Brien gleefully raced over for White to convert.

At 19-10, a different match was on the cards and the cards did not lie.

Almost immediately on the resumption, another White penalty, topped by his conversion of a Matt Davenport try, gave a resurgent Jersey the lead for the first time.

A ten-minute spell either side of the interval effectively doused Winchester's fire. Valiantly as the hosts fought thereafter, Jersey full back, Gareth Jeffreys, was the judge of their efforts. He weaved a mesmeric path from his own twenty-two on the hour to confound a tiring Winchester outfit who had shot their bolt by half-time.

The hosts could no longer deny Jersey's pacy backs the space they needed as they had done so efficiently earlier.

At 25-19 down, Winchester kept plugging away but to little effect, except that hidden reserves of energy in defence in the closing stages enabled them to keep the scoreline highly respectable.

It had all threatened to be so different. Winchester centre James Bingham, enjoying his best game for the club in both attack and defence, charged through a gaping hole in the visitors' back line to score after only seven minutes. His touch down under the posts made Dan Kinsey's conversion easy.

A volley of four Kinsey penalties extended the hosts' lead as Jersey grew increasingly desperate. Indeed, Winchester penned them in their own half, playing with great poise, only for the wheels to come off the wagon in so heart-wrenching a fashion.

This was so nearly the day of the underdog. And had it been so, Jersey could have had no complaints about losing their unbeaten record for the season, because their first half display was as poor as their second half was intelligent.

Once the visitors sensed Winchester were on the ropes, they increased their intensity - turning the match on its head, rather like boxing's "rumble in the jungle" when Ali beat George Foreman.

Jersey aren't top of the league for nothing. They are a good team but by no means an exceptional one. An exceptional one would have reversed the roles of this match and coasted home, not leaving anything to chance.

But Winchester played their full part, knocking Jersey out of their stride, giving the lie to those who only take an overview of their results and draw the wrong conclusions.

The Winchester team played with verve. But special mention must be made of scrum half Andy Ashwin, who was superb. He was the axis around which his side operated. Yet even he ended up treading water as Winchester's effectiveness waned.

Nevertheless, a game such as this should put a tiger in their tank for the rest of the season, come what may.

Head coach Barry Bridgman praised his team's efforts but admitted: "We ran out of steam and lost our shape in the second half. Where we had closed them down earlier, we couldn't get to them later on."

Team: Smith, Waddington, Bingham, Kinsey, West, Rogers, Ashwin, O'Donoghue, Crowther, Mort, Hayes, Ettinger, Pervin, Knight (Turner 40), Manning.

Winchester are in league action at Chobham tomorrow (29th), hoping to get their season back on track.