Under-18

FROME 12 DORCHESTER 15

DORCHESTER completed a league double over Frome thanks to a stirring second- half display.

After last week’s dire performance in defeat to North Dorset, the coaching staff demanded a robust response and they got it from every single player.

The visitors got off to a flying start when, from the kick-off, they secured turnover ball and flanker Harry Minhin-nick made ground before offloading to winger Ben Burnell, who raced in from 35 metres.

The next five minutes showed that Frome are a much better side than the one that lost to Dorchester by more than 20 points earlier in the season.

They laid siege to the county town try line and got their reward when one of their props crashed over and with the conversion added, took a deserved lead.

The rest of the half was very evenly contested with neither side able to add to their score. At times, Dorchester’s defence was made to work hard and they endured a 10-minute period of pressure before finally clearing their lines.

The second half saw the visitors start in determined fashion and, with the pack in control, they made valuable ground.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t make this dominance pay and when Frome made a rare visit to Dorchester’s half a couple of missed tackles allowed Frome to extend their lead to 12-5.

At this point it seemed that Dorchester would come away empty-handed, but they dug deep and when centre Harry Charlier came from deep and, at an angle, he carved open the Frome defence, beat the last man and touched down.

Back came the visitors and, with backs and forward combining well, the action moved to the Frome try line where the home defence mounted a rearguard action to keep the visitors out.

However, Hugh Vivian, again running from deep, took a short pass from Ali James and there was no way he was going to be stopped. The conversion was missed but Dorchester led 15-12 going into the final 10 minutes.

As time ticked by, Frome won a penalty within kicking distance but bizarrely opted to kick for a line-out and subsequently missed touch. That meant they had to be content with a losing bonus point as Dorchester claimed a superb win.