Wimborne storm into cup final (From Bournemouth Echo)

Wimborne storm into cup final

7:00am Wednesday 9th January 2013 in Rugby

WIMBORNE produced a thrilling late show to claim a dramatic victory over Buckingham to reach the Southern Counties Intermediate Cup final.

The Minstermen left it late before sealing a 35-26 win at Leigh Park on Saturday in front of the largest home crowd at the ground for many years.

The Dorset & Wilts Cup champions made a stunning start but had to dig deep to find a way past their visitors in last-gasp fashion.

Inside the first minute, Gavin Maltman charged down a Buckingham kick before sprinting 50 metres to score a converted try. Maltman was then on hand to finish a Wimborne counter-attack on 17 minutes following a good break by centre Will Tarbard.

But Buckingham continued to press and eventually got on the scoreboard after 28 minutes with a penalty for offside. Two quickfire tries followed for the visitors before a penalty from Tom Moysey levelled the scores at 15-15 at the interval.

Wimborne regained the lead thanks to a converted effort from Tom Napier before Moysey, who registered 15 points in the contest, extended the advantage to 25-15 with a penalty.

Buckingham landed a three-pointer of their own before Wimborne’s Matt Warwick was yellow carded.

Buckingham made use of their numerical superiority to score an unconverted try before edging 26-25 in front with a last-minute penalty.

However, with much time to be added for stoppages, the match was far from over.

Wimborne camped on the Buckingham line before eventually forcing a penalty. Cool customer Moysey lined up the potential match-winning kick and the young fly-half held his nerve to boot his team 28-26 ahead.

With desperate Buckingham trying to run the ball from deep, a spilled pass allowed Sam St Barbe to run in for a converted try to confirm victory.

Wimborne will meet Wallingford in the final with the date to be confirmed.

Wimborne: Unwin, Hunt, Tinsdale, Best, Warwick, Foley, Murphy, King, Priest, Moysey, J Brokenshire, Tarbard, Brown, Maltman, Maidment, R Brokenshire, Folkard, Napier, Watson, Llewellyn, Tryska, St Barbe.

• Struggling Swanage & Wareham endured a nightmare start to 2013 as they slipped to the bottom of the South West One East standings.

Swans suffered a 36-0 defeat at Gloucester-based outfit Old Centralians as the second-placed hosts continued their exceptional form.

And with relegation rivals High Wycombe and Newbury Blues both securing victories, Swans were condemned to the foot of the table.

Swans: Dunsford, Barton, Triniman, Wilcox, Rowberry, Parish, Tomes, Sheldrake, Elford, Wyburgh (Frampton, 47), Corsie, Collins, Scott (Large, 56), Jones, Desmond. Unused sub: Smith.

• Alex Lee got two tries as Ellingham & Ringwood boosted their London Three South West promotion hopes with a 46-25 home win over Old Wellingtonians. Dan Stewart, Duncan Soden, Andy Turner, Ross Whale and Ali Bennett were also on the scoresheet.
• In Southern Counties South, Oakmeadians lost 23-14 at Wootton Bassett.