Alton travel to Bournemouth to take on the Dorset and Wiltshire U18 Champions

A new season, a new squad and the first opportunity to test the Alton skills. Alton travelled to Bournemouth to face the new entrants to Division 1 of the Hampshire league in a pre season friendly.

Alton performed well, and for large parts of the game dominated play through some great running lines and a siege mentality defence. The pack led by Alex Lewis, who started this season as he finished last, refused to take a step backwards. The ball won, although not the cleanest for George Lucas to deal with , was used to great effect with Harry Faulkner putting the side into the right areas when needed to.

Hampshire rugby will clearly be a tougher examination for Bournemouth and Alton are relishing the upcoming return league fixtures .

Next week sees the start of the league fixtures with a trip to Andover, where Alton hope to start their league campaign with a win.