LYTCHETT MINSTER 5 WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 22

WEYMOUTH & Portland overcame Lytchett to reach the Dorset Plate final for the second year running.

The game started with the home side pressing hard and putting the visitors under a good deal of pressure.

The hosts attacked a number of times down the left wing and only a series of strong tackles by Rafe Owen kept them out.

However, their persistence did pay off after five minutes when their number eight crashed through a number of defenders to cross the line.

After the restart, the home side continued to press and there was more defending for Weymouth to do.

They weren’t helped by a number of handling errors in the cold conditions and the flow of the game was somewhat restricted by the resulting scrums.

But the visitors gradually applied more and more pressure as they began to dominate, with the front five in particular having a good day at the office.

It took them until the 15th minute to level the scores though, Jaden Claridge also crashing through a couple of attempted tackles to score.

The resulting conversion was missed, but that score gave Weymouth the confidence to play more freely and they began to put Lytchett under pressure.

Their persistence paid off with a few minutes to go in the first half when Casey Perring-Hogg broke through to score, and this time the conversion by Rob Hunter was successful.

The first half ended with Weymouth leading 12-5.

That lead was increased early in the second half when Benjamin Jones picked up off the back of a scrum in the Lytchett 22 and took advantage of the poorly defended blindside to score in the corner.

That try gave the visitors a little breathing space, but by no means did Lytchett give up at any point.

They continued to press and cause problems for the Weymouth defence, but the better game management of the visitors kept Lytchett mostly in their own half.

Weymouth in turn, although having more possession in the second period, were unable to use it to its full advantage as many of their half-breaks were brought to an end by a handling error, a poor offload, or a wayward pass.

Because they weren’t able to break out of their own half the Weymouth pressure finally told on Lytchett when David Taylor broke a number of tackles.

As he was brought to ground, Perring-Hogg, who had tracked his run, took the offload and managed to beat the last two defenders to score.

This proved to be the final score as the two teams could not break each other down again, resulting in a hard fought 22-5 victory for Weymouth & Portland.

The final, against Sherborne at North Dorset RFC, will be played on Sunday, February 14.