There was drama aplenty in the last five minutes of an attritional game on the Club Pitch at Footes Lane as Layton Batiste’s side pushed for the try that would give them the lead for the first time having fought back from being 12-0 down to Bournemouth Nomads at half-time.
With time running down and the visitors 17-14 ahead, Nomads were creaking and a succession of red-zone penalties eventually resulted in a yellow card for the men in yellow and Vikings made them pay as patience paid off with Luke Grigg powering his way over from close range.
That put them 19-17 up with the conversion attempt to come and co-captain Tom Veillard asked the referee how long was left on the clock. The response was that there would be time to restart after the conversion attempt, but Matt Lomas-Lloyd understandably used up as many seconds as he could over his kick at goal.
Unfortunately, it struck the right-hand upright, leaving the Vikings advantage at just two points, and the rally cry from one Bournemouth forward to his teammates as they lined-up one last time was ‘we haven’t come all this way to lose’.
They heeded his words and they quickly won back possession before working through a few phases during which time they picked up a penalty advantage in a central position a good 30m from the posts.
With nothing coming from that advantage, the referee came back for the penalty, but marked it significantly closer to the posts making the kick into a hurting wind and drizzle easier – much to the chagrin of Vikings.
Aaron Stevenson, who had struck the ball sweetly with his right foot throughout, then drove the dagger into Sarnian hearts by slotting over to clinch a 20-19 win.
Earlier, Jacob Smith has scored the first two Vikings tries, both converted by Lomas-Lloyd, as part of an impressive comeback after Nomads had dominated the opening 40.
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