PREVIEW – Bournemouth (A)
The final league match of 2024 is upon us and its a short trip across the Dorset border to face fourth place Bournemouth as all of the top four sides go head-to-head this weekend.
MATCH: Bournemouth v Tottonians
VENUE: Chapel Gate, East Parley, Dorset, BH23 6BL
COMPETITION: Regional Division 2 South Central
DATE: Saturday 21st December 2024
KICK-OFF: 2:00pm
ADMISSION: NOT FREE – £8 for adults, £6 for Over 60s, free for U16s (card or cash)
LIVE MATCH UPDATES: On our Twitter/X channel @Tottonians
OVERVIEW:
Just a single point separates these two sides – Totts in second with a game in hand on 49 points while Bournemouth are sat in fourth on 48. With just one promotion place up for grabs, all of the top four sides know how important this weekend is.
Ambitious Bournemouth, with some plans afoot to reclimb the league ladder back to their National League days, have won eight games in a row since they were defeated at Water Lane with a last minute try back in September. They are unbeaten at home – their defeats coming away at the top two sides, Farnham and ourselves.
As pre-Christmas games go, this is a pretty big one! The Lions have strengthened of late so they may well be a different animal to the one we saw three months ago in the nail-biting 38-34 win for Liam Murphy’s side.
With no other fixtures across the club this weekend, it is hoped that the Tottonians supporters will come out in force – please be aware that Bournemouth do charge an entrance fee for their home games (see above), sadly not reciprocating the free entry they were afforded when they came to Water Lane earlier in the season and forcing supporters to pay to watch rugby at level six – for us, for the first time this year.
Hopefully that will not put people off – if it does, there will be live updates on our Twitter/X feed throughout the afternoon so you can keep informed of what is happening.
The calendar year comes to a close, Christmas is around the corner and the New Year brings a game with Chichester at home on 4th January (free entry for that one) and hope that, come April, it is Tottonians at the top of the table looking forward to a shot at promotion.
However, there is a significent hurdle to cross before that transpires.
TEAM NEWS:
As has been the case through the season, it is team roulette in selection!
In the backs, Jamie Laing returns at full-back and Tom Tully, who scored a hat-trick in the reverse fixture, is back in the centre. Leo Tongue misses out with illness so Rich Buck starts on the wing. Ethan Riley switches from 15 to 10.
Forwards wise, Tom Gregory regains his front row shirt while Scott Rogers fills the number 8 shirt and Ali Ramus returns in the second row.
Kev Raqio returns to the bench and is joined by Isaac Osman and Rich Colmer.
HISTORY and STATS:
This will be just the second league meeting between the two sides. Despite being relatively near neighbours, the Hampshire/Dorset divide in terms of being in London or the South West regions meant that we were never destined to meet.
That was, until 21 September 2024, when a breathless, highly entertaining encounter closed with a victory for the home side courtesy of Tom Tully’s hat-trick clinching try and Robbie Searle’s conversion in the last minute, coming from 28-14 down.
It was an outstanding game of never-say-die attitute from the hosts and you can be assured there will be plenty of the same on Saturday at Chapel Gate.
