Richard Hill launches charity at Salisbury Rugby Club

The main pitch hosted a double header, the 1st XV were presented with their new shirts by the family of Club stalwart Chris Whalley, the minis attended in force to play at half-time and everything was preceded by the launch of the LooseHeadz charity which provides awareness and support for mental health by building a chain of links in rugby clubs across the world.

All topped off by the presence of a superstar of the game, Salisbury’s very own Richard Hill.

Richard Hill MBE

Alas the 1st XV couldn’t get over the line against a rugged Royal Wootton Bassett (RWB) second XV.

Despite 12 of the 18 man squad coming through the Salisbury Junior ranks, it was Royal Wootton Bassett who started with the more cohesion and pace.

Quickly into their stride they nearly scored from a lineout drill, before spreading the ball wide for fly-half Jewell to score out wide after just three minutes.

The home pack then set about their task with big carriers Dom Porter (Skipper on the day), Bobby Brown and Aiden Gill making large dents to establish field position in the Royal Wootton Bassett 22m area and on 16 minutes Brown forced his way over to equalise, with Ollie Bate’s miss of the conversion demonstrating the difficult conditions for both kickers.

The large home crowd were beginning to grow in confidence as the forwards started to exert some dominance, earning a penalty that would have sailed over in dry conditions.

But a frustrating error count prevented Salisbury from taking the lead and it was against the run of play when Royal Wootton Bassett harried and fought their way upfield to spring right-wing Tuisue into space to cross and complete the half-time score at 5:10.

The second half dropped into a pattern of Salisbury using their forward advantage to make the hard yards, before trying to use their backs.

But in the conditions and against a committed defence, the handling errors constantly let RWB off the hook and they happily kicked the ball downfield to force Salisbury to start all over again.

Full-back Hugh Bate had a confident debut at full-back, with one clean break looking very hopeful before the referee called him back for a penalty rather than allow advantage and Charlie Kantolinna providing craft alongside his muscle.

But in the main the home side were unable to cause much damage on the counter attack and

with the line-out beginning to fall apart, Salisbury were going to have to fight for every inch on the way to the necessary scores.

That became more difficult when Jewell slotted over a penalty to take the lead out beyond a converted try.

Despite that all the pressure was on RWB who lost Tuisue to a yellow card, closely followed by Jewell.

But despite being down to 13, Salisbury couldn’t capitalise. Ollie Bate pulled a penalty attempt wide on 61 minutes but it was the constant threat of Joe Paden, playing in the centre, who broke the deadlock after a series of punishing runs from the forwards to score down the righthand side and bring the game back to a three point difference.

But that it is how it remained to leave a delighted RWB at the final whistle and a home team wondering how they let this game slip away.

There was better news from the second XV performance against Melksham IIs in the last shake down before their own league campaign kicks-off.

They posted eight tries and a solid defensive display to brush aside their opponents with scores from Nat Armstrong (2), Ben Wheeler, Skipper Scotty Nicol, Matthew Ball, Hayden Morgan and finished by the returning Harry Clarke.

Angus Aitken had a good day with the boot converting five tries to close the score at 50 points to nil.