To keep the possibility of a place in the play-off for promotion to London 2 South alive, Winchester needed a bonus-point win from Saturday’s visit to London Exiles’ ground in Barnes. A win with fewer than four tries would not do it; nor would a draw.

Of all the other teams in the RFU’s London 2 South-West, Exiles are probably the most similar to Winchester, with runners in the backs getting a good supply of ball from a solid pack of forwards and regularly breaking the gain-line, with well-drilled set-piece work, determined defence and a never-say-die spirit. Beating them at all, let alone with a bonus point, was always going to be a big ask.

“They’re a good side, and it’s always a pleasure to play them, whatever the result – though of course it’s a greater pleasure when we win”, said Winchester coach Andy Fields after the match. “They never allow themselves to believe they’re beaten until the final whistle goes, and they clawed their way back from a two-score deficit today. Hats off to them.”

Dreams are just dreams, and the reality was that Winchester’s best hope was to end the season, as they did last year, in third place. If they won or even drew this match, the second-last of the season, they would keep that hope alive: if they lost, even that consolation would almost certainly be gone.

They lost. It was a great game of rugby between two evenly-matched teams, played in a great spirit, and a joy for spectators of both persuasions in a knowledgeable crowd, until the last two of eight minutes of stoppage time added to the second half by the young London Society referee David Jones, when two crucial decisions went against Winchester, and the justice of a 17-17 draw was turned into what any neutral spectator would have seen as the injustice of a 24-17 victory to Exiles.

Perhaps a more experienced referee would have blown up after Winchester evened the scores with 42 minutes on the second-half clock, sensing that a draw would be the fair result for both teams. Or even if he did not, perhaps a more experienced referee would have awarded a penalty against Exiles four minutes later for holding on at the breakdown, rather than pinging Winchester’s front-rower Rob Arthur for going off his feet when he was clearly on them and wrestling in vain for the ball. Perhaps a more experienced referee would have seen, half a minute later, that Jake Hiscock’s smother tackle of Exiles centre James Murray into the corner-flag had knocked the ball out of the latter’s hands before he grounded it for the winning try and a personal hat-trick.

The fallibility of even the most experienced referees is something that players and supporters of a game governed by complex laws requiring expert interpretation readily accept: what you lose on the swings you generally get back on the roundabouts. But Mr Jones denied Winchester both swings and roundabouts, and Fields, who will retire after seven seasons as Winchester’s coach after this Saturday’s league finale against Cobham, as well as the 18 players who went to Barnes, have every right to feel that they deserved better from fate in the form of this referee.

Winchester had opened their account after only five minutes, with a massive 48-metre penalty for scrum-half Connor Breen which bounced over off the top of the cross-bar. But when the sides turned round at half-time with the score 9-3 to Winchester, it was hard to imagine that they would score the four tries needed for a bonus point. They had come close only once, with second-row Campbell Ettinger held up over the line and Mr Jones penalising Exiles with a yellow card, leaving them without a fly-half for 10 minutes. It took until 20 minutes into the second half for the scoreboard to move again, with a fourth penalty for Breen, who had a disappointing day with the boot despite his spectacular first effort, ending the match with four misses from eight attempts.

Nine minutes later, Winchester conceded a penalty, Exiles kicked to the corner, drove the maul and Murray was over for a try. Full-back William Banbury’s conversion brought the score to 10-12.

As 30 minutes of the second half ticked up, Exiles broke into the Winchester 22 from a scrum. Breen, as he does too often for his team-mates’ comfort and his coach’s good temper, opted for a panicky box-kick rather than safety, and shanked the kick into the welcoming arms of Murray, who had an easy run in for his second. 17-12.

With injuries to Winchester flanker Angus Adamson and inside-centre Greg Sullivan, replaced by Nye Rees and Seb Purvis, and a nasty clash of heads between Winchester’s No 8 Rob Rees and Exiles’ Murray, the pattern of Winchester’s game was suffering and stoppage time was mounting up.

But as the clock turned red, Winchester were awarded a scrum five metres from the Exiles line. A huge shove drove the home pack back, Exiles wheeled the scrum and handled the ball before it was out. Mr Jones opted for a penalty where many referees would have awarded a penalty try. Winchester opted to take the scrum again, and somehow found the reserves for an even more impressive drive. As No 8 Rees crossed the line with the ball at his feet, Breen whipped it out and two slick passes later Hiscock was over to make it 17 all. Breen missed the conversion that might have kept Winchester’s third place in the league.

And then came Mr Jones’s last two crucial decisions, Murray’s hat-trick try and its conversion, and the end of the road for any remaining play-off hopes for Winchester. All they have to look forward to is a trip to Cobham on Saturday, with injuries and unavailability meaning at least six changes to their team.

Before that, they will be saying farewell to Tom Viljoen, who has become a key member of the team at 9, 10 and 15 this season, and who is moving to Vancouver, where he will be playing cricket and rugby, the latter in company with another former Winchester player, Ollie Owen. Good luck, Shetland Pony.

Winchester team: Tom Viljoen; Tom Forster, Jake Hiscock, Greg Sullivan, Adam Dye; Pat Cheshire, Connor Breen; Alex Lee, Rob Arthur, Jim Beavan, Campbell Ettinger, Matt Lown, Will Self, Angus Adamson, Rob Rees

Substitutes: James Edwards, Nye Rees, Seb Purvis