South-West One

WESTON-SUPER-MARE 27 Dorchester 3

Dorchester's season of woe continued with Saturday's visit to the league leaders.

The team already shorn of regulars Aaron Cooke, Ben Scott, Marcus Foice and Rich Miller then lost Mike Sprules and Ian Woodbridge on the morning of the game.

The much-changed side produced a fine gutsy performance and although they never looked likely to upset the formbook they did earn the plaudits of the home crowd as they battled on right to the final whistle.

Weston won the toss and elected to play into the stiff breeze, which enabled Dorchester to enjoy plenty of territorial advantage, but the home side had a very solid defence and coped comfortably with everything that Dorchester could throw at them.

Not suprisingly, given the changes in personnel, the visitors struggled in both scrum and line-out, but still managed to produce enough ball to keep Weston on their toes.

In a half dominated by defences it was a piece of electric running by Weston's full back Goran Vucicevic that opened the scoring, latching on to a long pass he eluded his opposite number before outpacing the cover to the try line. Brett McCormack added the extras.

The highlight of the half for Dorchester supporters was a barnstorming run down the left wing by Roly Harries knocking off would-be tacklers in a way not seen for some time. Dorchester did hit back when Mike Gannaway, playing at outside centre, popped over a penalty.

Unfortunately the same player then missed another attempt that would have closed the gap to a single point.

The half finished with scrum half Coleman kicking a penalty to give the home side a seven point advantage at the break.

The second-half was always going to be a struggle but Dorchester gamely stuck to the task and their speed of tackling and support caused the home side to concede a stream of penalties for not releasing the ball quickly enough.

Using the wind better than had Dorchester, Weston spent long periods camped in the visitors 22 and it was inevitable that further tries would be scored.

It is to Dorchester's credit that their line was only crossed twice, firstly outside centre Rainey went in by the posts then left winger Steele crashed over from close range. McCormack converted both tries and kicked a penalty to complete the scoring.

Dorchester had their moments during the second period, notably a long break up the middle by Matt Joseph, but ultimately it was only pride that was salvaged.