SUTTONG Benger claimed a bonus point when romping to a 24-12 success away at Dorset & Wilts One North basement boys Sutton Benger.

Despite Supermarine’s winless record so far this season, the contest was finely balanced throughout the first half, before Benger finally made a breakthrough with five minutes remaining.

After camping on the tryline, the ball was shipped to Ollie Maher, who drew the cover tackle came before feeding Ollie Waddington to finish in the corner. The conversion was missed and the visitors had to make do with a 5-0 lead at the break.

Benger were first to strike in the second half after a penalty was sent by Callum Harford to the corner. Quick ball off the top of the lineout found Maher, who cut through the Supermarine defence to score under the posts before converting himself.

The home side hit back with a try of their own, but Benger began to ring the changes, and it was the substitutes who secured them the win as the third try came from Christopher Bolter.

The conversion was missed and the visitors then found themselves down to 14 men when Matt Rea was sent to the sin-bin.

Supermarine were unable to take advantage and Benger’s fourth try came from another substitute, Alex Blackmore, who dashed over to wrap up the bonus point as Callum Harford added the extras.

In the last play of the game, poor defence around the fringes of the ruck saw Supermarine grab their second try of the game, but it made little difference on the outcome overall.

Elsewhere, Minety got their season back on track with a hard-fought 27-13 victory at home to Calne.

Calne started the match playing down the slope and the Minety pack found themselves being pushed back at set-pieces in the early stages.

The visitors opened the scoring after a quarter-of-an-hour minute with a well-worked converted try after a period of sustained pressure on the tryline.

Calne kept up the pressure and only strong tackle from Colin French, Andy Darrell and Mark Glew kept them out.

However, the visitors were able to increase their lead on the half-hour mark with a penalty.

As the half neared its end, Minety started to play the kind of rugby that had served them so well early in the season and Chris Rule took the ball forward before it was moved out wide for Ben Langridge to touch down in the corner. Sam Hughes’ conversion cut the deficit to 10-7 at the break.

Minety took the lead for the first time soon after the change of ends as Hughes beat three defenders before popping the ball to Dave Cooke to score put the host 12-10 up.

Although the conversion sailed wide, Hughes kicked a penalty shortly afterwards.

Calne struck back with a penalty of their own and as the match entered its final quarter, Minety went for the win and the four-try bonus point.

Andrew Hibbard was held up on the line, but from the ensuing scrum, Hughes spotted a gap in the Calne defence and dived over to score Minety’s third try before pushing their advantage to nine points with the conversion.

It looked as if Minety’s quest for the bonus-point try would be thwarted by a determined defence until Jack Howse burst through before offloading to Rule to finish the job and cap a fine win.

Finally, Calne suffered a crushing 110-12 defeat on the road at league leaders Combe Down.