PREVIEW – Wimborne (H)
After a blank weekend due to the weather, Tottonians return to home action at Water Lane with the visit of Wimborne, who put us through our paces in the reverse fixture back in October before we finally prevailed 33-24.
MATCH: Tottonians v Wimborne
VENUE: Water Lane, Totton, SO40 3ZX
COMPETITION: Regional Division 2 South Central
DATE: Saturday 18th January 2025
KICK-OFF: 2:00pm
ADMISSION: FREE
LIVE MATCH UPDATES: On our Twitter/X channel @Tottonians
OVERVIEW:
So it is the start of, potentially, five league games on successive Saturday’s for Tottonians as two of the ‘blank’ weekends have been filled with the re-arrangements. Three of those are at home – much will be known come mid-February about the status of our promotion bid.
Nothing will be taken for granted, especially against a Wimborne side who proved a tough nut to crack in the reverse fixture in Dorset back in October before we finally came away with a bonus point victory thanks to Leo Tongue’s brace and singles from Cam Flint and Nic Jansen, taking us to a 33-24 success.
Wimborne are fifth in the table, having played two games more than us and have 39 points – they are 14 points behind us but lead the trailing pack from Petersfield in sixth. Tottonians come into this game in fourth place, still with a game in hand over Bournemouth and Winchester – who face each other next weekend – our game in hand is now the game with Guildford next month.
Our visitors were the only side to play last weekend despite the conditions and endured their third straight league defeat, losing to Chichester having come up short against North Dorset before Christmas and at home to Petersfield in their opening 2025 fixture.
They will be heading to Water Lane looking to arrest their current indifferent run but with a fairly full strength squad available, Tottonians will be aiming to keep their imposing home record of seven straight home victories this season and 35 wins from 38 on home soil since the return to league action in 2021.
Kick-off is at 2pm and there is another busy pre-match lunch, sponsored by Elliott’s, so let’s get right behind the lads as we embark on five vital games in five weeks.
TEAM NEWS:
For the first time this season, there is very little in the way of amendments to the scheduled XVIII selected – the virus which swept through the club has finally cleared and we have a majority full set of health to pick from, barring those on the long term injury list.
Josh Raqio is on Army duties so is unavailable so Rich Buck come in on the wing and Robbie Searle is back at number 10. Connor Andrews reverts into the back row moving Jonny Lovell onto the bench.
Otherwise, that’s it as we look forward to celebrating Tom Gregory’s 150th 1st XV appearance for the club.
HISTORY and STATS:
This is just the fourth league meeting between Tottonians and Wimborne since the first back in October 2023 in the newly formed Regional 2 South Central.
Last season’s two fixtures were split evenly with Totts coming out comfortably on top in the home game 55-19 before suffering a 23-27 reverse at Leigh Park in late January.
