DORCHESTER 5 WALCOT 20

A NEW season, but for Dorchester it was the same old story.

Already short of half a dozen first-choice players, the county town side then lost Carl Mitchell to a knee injury within the first five minutes of this Southern Counties clash.

Despite the necessary reorganisation, Dorchester started well with a sustained period of attack.

However, for all the pressure they were unable to break through Walcot’s resolute def-ence.

A couple of needless penalties then allowed the visitors a line-out five metres out and, from the following catch and drive, the Walcot second-row forced his way over for the opening try.

The hosts continued to have the lion’s share of both possession and territory but appeared to lack a cutting edge and never really threatened the visitors’ line.

As the half drew to a close, the Walcot fly-half kicked a simple penalty to leave Dorchester trailing at the break by eight points.

In the second half, Dorchester clearly tried to up the tempo of their game but they were still unable to get on the scoreboard.

They won a stream of good ball from line-outs and gave the Walcot scrum a torrid time but the spark was missing outside and it was Walcot who scored next.

The outside-centre cruised over under the posts, and the conversion meant that Dorchester needed to score three times.

Throwing everything at Walcot, Dorchester finally crossed the try line – skipper James Newsam forcing his way over from a five-metre scrum.

Any thoughts of a comeback were soon dashed, firstly the conversion came back off the upright and then Dorchester failed to collect from the kick- off and Walcot scored in the left-hand corner.

This appeared to knock the stuffing out of the hosts and, but for some poor decision-making from Walcot, they could easily conceded several more tries in the dying minutes of the game.

Dorchester: Warren, Pengelly, Hodgson, S Jones, C Mitchell, D Gower Newsam, Segison, Allan, Hunt, R Grassby, Harvey, Deakin, Paton; Clark. Replacements all used: Cottell, E Grassby, Fry