PUDDLETOWN 8

ELLINGHAM & R II 15

ON THE 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this game ended as a tragedy when it could have been sheer poetry for Puddletown.

The writing was on the wall from the opening curtain with the Hampshire side being bolstered by their first XV not having a game.

However, on a glorious day for rugby, both sides battled hard to take the spoils.

The visitors took the initiative in the opening act and applied all the early pressure.

The men in red valiantly repelled the onslaught until the mighty, hard-running Ellingham full-back received the ball in open play and ran through some lamentable Puddletown tackles to score a converted try under the posts.

The home team awoke from their slumber and for the remainder of the first half were easily the better side.

The foot soldiers up front over-powered the visiting pack in the scrums and gave the backs some front foot ball to play with.

However, it was from a line-out on the visitors’ 22m line that the Villagers scored their only try of the game.

The ball was caught cleanly by Sam Pomeroy, and fed out through the backs with training ground precision to Louis Beale on the right wing.

Beale was well tackled just short of the line, but open-side flanker Chris Haines was on hand to gather the ball and score in the corner, the conversion was missed.

Just before the break, Tom Yeatman converted a penalty from 30 metres after Ellingham were penalised at the ruck, to give Puddletown a slender 8-7 lead at half-time.

After the interval, the battle recommenced with hard hits coming in from both sides.

The Hampshire team bought on some of their travelling reserves and this appeared to strengthen their pack.

The Ellingham full-back – their hero of the first half, turned villain early in the second half.

The home full-back, Baz Dovell followed up his own speculative kick and caught his opposite number in the dead-ball area.

The Ellingham player dotted the ball down, but then punched out at Dovell and the referee showed him a straight red card for violent conduct.

With the opposition down to 14, Puddletown decided not to take the easy three points from the resulting penalty. They ran the ball wide, but failed to convert the pressure into points.

The visitors seemed to get stronger in adversity and soon scored their second try (unconverted) from a five-metre scrum.

The home side continued to battle hard, but the visitors extended their lead to 15-8 by converting a penalty and held on for a hard-earned victory and earned a losing bonus point.

In a strange twist of fate, worthy of any Shakespearean play, Puddletown’s local rivals Dorchester Seconds were gifted an away walkover by the Ringwood side’s near neighbours Fordingbridge Seconds.

Dorchester were awarded a “win” without touching a ball and finished the season one point above Puddletown in the table.