NURSING a selection of injuries, coupled with rueing missed chances, saw Salisbury RFC trip up by a painful point at fellow promotion runners Wimborne in Southern Counties South.

Entering the clash from prospective fourth and fifth positions, it was the higher placed hosts, now up to third, who took advantage of Salisbury’s sloppy errors towards the latter part of the first period. Wimborne ran through a lacklustre Salisbury defence four minutes before the break to score and then convert the try.

And, virtually from the restart, Wimborne replicated this piece of work, directly running through the Salisbury defence for another try and conversion to enter the break 14-0 up.

A much brighter start by Salisbury in the second half allowed Liam Gilbert to score from a driving line out early on, but it was frustratingly unconverted.

The visitors shared the better of possession and should have made more of the attacks they launched but, following a period of exerted Wimborne pressure, Salisbury conceded a penalty which was converted.

This made the visitors dig deep and their efforts paid dividends when Paddy Dickson scored from some good interplay between the backs and forwards, and Tom Pottage converted to reduce the gap to 17-12.

And for the first time in the encounter, they went ahead thanks to Aiden Gill sliding under the posts and Pottage holding his nerve for the extras.

At 17-19 it looked like the points were heading back to Castle Road until a reckless penalty Salisbury gave away at the death was scored to win the match 20-19.

Coach Dan Jefferies commented that his team needed to learn the lessons from this match ahead of the Dorset and Wilts Cup Final versus Swanage and Wareham on Saturday (2.15pm).