Winchester’s First Team registered its fifth win in a row, 46-3 at home to Effingham and Leatherhead, last Saturday. Four of those wins, this one included, have brought them bonus points for scoring four tries or more, and bonus points are going to be critical in deciding which two of the 12 clubs in the RFU’s London 2 South-West league gain promotion at the end of the season.

With neither London Cornish nor Tottonians taking a bonus point last Saturday, they and Winchester are now clustered at the top of the table with only four league points separating first from third. Eight matches into the 22-match league programme, and with fourth-placed KCS Old Boys six points behind Winchester, a gap is beginning to open up between the top three and the rest.

Winchester came back from Effingham a year ago licking their wounds after a 57-8 drubbing, and last April lost to them 13-27 at home. In both matches, the experience and tactical nous of the Eagles’ fly-half Brian Collins played an important part. On Saturday, he drew first blood after two minutes with a penalty after a Winchester defender went off his feet.

But those were to be the visitors’ only points of the afternoon.

For another 25 minutes, the two teams continued to try to dictate to each other how the game was to be played, with neither getting a firm enough grip on it. Winchester mauled productively, Effingham wheeled the scrum on the home team’s put-in, Winchester hooker Chris Searle threw into the lineout with pin-point accuracy, scrum-half Connor Breen evened the score with a penalty. The crowd was uncharacteristically subdued.

Hampshire referee Richard James sent the Eagles’ hooker Toby Woods to cool his heels for 10 minutes after he had repeatedly joined rucks from the side, and suddenly the game caught fire. Rather than kick the penalty, Winchester opted for a scrum, and with Winchester packing down eight against seven, a clean heel gave No 8 Matt Golding quick ball, and his maiden try for the First Team was almost a formality. Breen’s conversion attempt from wide out on the right drifted across the face of the posts.

From this point on, Winchester dominated the game. All 15 players had done their bit and more in achieving this, but the excellent if unspectacular close-quarters work of Searle, prop Robbie Arthur and No6 Chris Keegan had been crucial.

90 seconds from the 40-minute whistle, Winchester worked their way up the field in a series of pick-and-go phases before releasing the ball to winger Matt Burt on the left. Back to his top form as a finisher, he made no mistake, and touched down in the left-hand corner, to give Breen a conversion attempt from the opposite angle to his first one. Again, it turned out to be sighting practice.

Second-row Rob Rees fumbled the restart kick, the Eagles’ winger Anthony Penny picked up and threatened to break out, but Burt’s uncompromising tackle left the ball for Sullivan to pick up and take back to the opposition in a searing burst along the left-hand touchline, round a last-ditch tackle attempt by his opposite number and in towards the posts. Breen’s sighting practice paid off, and half-time came with Winchester with three tries, a penalty and a conversion in the bag and 20-3 in the lead.

Coach Andy Fields rotated the Winchester front row, starting the second half with Jim Beavan on for Alex Lee.

Eight minutes in, Winchester won a lineout on the Effingham 5-metre line, formed a maul, crabbed across field at high speed, and open-side flanker Zach Kinnaird, back from injury in sparkling form, crashed over for the bonus-point try, Breen converting. 27-3.

Jerry Alfandari came on for Matt Lown in the second row, and then Lee returned to take over from Arthur. Matt Woods allowed Kinnaird a rest, coming on at blindside flanker, with Keegan moving to 7.

For someone whose accustomed position is winger or full-back, the popular Woods acquitted himself well, taking good ball at the back of the lineout and making ground after snatching a bouncing ball - even if forwards coach Mick Sullivan was heard to offer the opinion that he’d never be a proper forward until he stopped worrying about his hair.

On 66 minutes, Burt scored his second try, kicking through the defence, hacking on towards the posts and winning the race to the touchdown to give Breen his easiest kick so far.

34-6, and time for another reshuffle. Max Lampard, in the starting XV for the first time after two appearances on the bench, had more than justified his selection at outside centre, but took a knock to the head and came off. Woods’s cameo in the back row came to an end with his return to the backline. Lown came back on at 8, and Golding moved to blindside flanker.

Regular Winchester supporters have got used to seeing their tight-five forwards running in the 12 and 13 channels, and the big second-row Rees more than most. Now fly-half Sullivan sent a long cut-out pass to the left, finding Rees, this time on the wing. At speed and that close to the touchline, Rees is no easier to stop than Brodie Retallick, and the score moved to 39-3.

Two minutes from the final whistle, Winchester’s captain Jake Hiscock had the final word, somehow snatching the ball from Effingham centre Ignatius Putty as he received a pass 30 metres out, staying on his feet, turning on a sixpence and sprinting to the posts. Breen’s conversion made it 46-3.

“To win as convincingly as this after we lost so badly to Effingham less than a year ago is a measure of how far this team has come,” said Fields. “Even at the end of last season I couldn’t have dreamed of the luxury of the kind of player rotation that’s available to me now, both in selection before a game and off the bench during it. But there’s no room for complacency, and the players know they’ll have to raise their game still further if we’re going to be serious contenders for promotion. We’ve got some hard games to come before Christmas, and it’s more than possible that who gets promoted at the end of the season won’t be decided until late March or April.”

This Saturday, Winchester visit Farnham, who last Saturday beat fourth-placed KCS Old Boys by a point.

Winchester team: Alex Baylis; Matt Burt, Max Lampard , Jake Hiscock, Tom Forster: Greg Sullivan, Connor Breen; Robbie Arthur, Chris Searle, Alex Lee, Rob Rees, Matt Lown, Chris Keegan, Zach Kinnaird, Matt Golding

Substitutes: Jim Beavan, Jerry Alfandari, Matt Woods

Other results: Winchester 2nds 17, Tottonians 2nds 12; Winchester 3rds/4ths 19; Tottonians 3rds/4ths 17