The second game week of 2026 has finally put some separation between the Lions and 2nd place Winchester after a hard-fought victory over Old Tiffinians.
The game was decided by a Grant Hancox penalty in the dying embers of the match.
Grant Hancox says: “Credit to Old Tiffs, they are a great team who tested us in every area, and the scoreline shows that.
“To nick the win late on was massive for us. On a day where things didn’t go our way, in particular, with the number of injuries we picked up, we found a way to win.
“It’s credit to the togetherness and camaraderie of the group. Snatching a win like this, on a day where Winchester slipped up at Tottonians is huge.
“We can’t underestimate the task at hand, and the target we will undoubtedly have on our back’s week in, week out.
“It’s far from job done, although it’s important we focus on ourselves and nobody else. We have to take each game week as it comes and work hard to continue progressing, beating whichever team is in front of us.”
The 33 – 30 win over 3rd place Tiffinians and Winchester losing to Tottonians means the two sides have finally seen some separation between the top 2, now Bournemouth need to maintain their imperious form and keep striding towards promotion.
Their next fixture against Reeds & Weybridge falls at the end of January, earlier this season, Reeds & Weybridge forfeited a match against Bournemouth and sit 11th in the table.
They suffered a heavy loss away to Twickenham last week and are now forced to take on the form team in the South-East.
The success of Bournemouth this season hasn’t come easy, grinding wins out across the fixture list and cementing their position at the top of the table against some giants of semi-pro rugby.
Recently, clubs across the Regional 2 London & SE division have started gaining more corporate sponsors and high-level players, big name clubs are bringing talent from across the country and in some cases across the world.
Bournemouth pride themselves on being a community first club with a fantastic culture for developing players.
One could look at the table and assume the season has been clear flying for the Lions but the stress of maintaining this form has been a challenge for the squad.
Head Coach, Will Croker, says: “Saturday’s performance was not perfect; it was one of grit and determination.
“We had faced a lot of adversity, and we lost our tighthead prop Luca Foretto to a suspected broken arm after about 10 minutes and both our centres to hamstring strains. Our flanker Connor McCaffrey filled in and we had two yellow cards.
“Old Tiffs are a very good team with great players. They attacked the breakdown hard which a lot of teams haven’t done against us, and we needed to find solutions.
“Grant Hancox came on and kicked brilliantly which of course decided the result. When you look at how important the result became after the Winchester and Tottonians result it puts us into a position where, provided we win all our games.
“We don’t need bonus points to get promotion. We now haven’t lost away from home since September 2024 and it’s a huge testament to the coaches and players that we haven’t lost in 34 games.”
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