NEW MILTON III 31

PUDDLETOWN 29

PUDDLETOWN were undone by a storming second-half comeback from New Milton Thirds, losing 31-29 in a tight Dorset & Wilts Two South encounter.

In a classic game of two halves, the Villagers began the match in rampant mood and their first try came from a poor New Milton clearance kick which was well fielded by Tim Yeatman and fed out through scrum-half Lucas Frizzle to number eight Pearce Mercer, who cantered through the home defence from halfway to score. Frizzle converted for a 7-0 lead.

Soon after, the visitors doubled their lead with a neat move from a line-out, full-back Baz Dovell coming into the line, breaking through, and offloading to winger Julian Dale who fed back inside to outside centre Matt Watts who went over to score. Frizzle again made the conversion for 14-0.

Puddletown’s third try came in similar fashion to the second, with a good ball won at a line-out, fed out to the backs, and fly-half Tom Yeatman throwing a well-timed pass to centre Watts who went over to score his second try of the game, which went unconverted.

New Milton struck back with a well-worked move at the front of a five-metre line-out, with their hooker going over to score an unconverted try in the corner.

Puddletown replied with a blindside move of their own from a five-metre scrum, Frizzle opting to go to the narrow side and getting the ball out to flanker Chris Haynes who went over in the corner.

Just before the break, in-form Puddletown’s lead was extended further when inside-centre Dan Udell burst through the defence in midfield, and fed out to the ever-present Haynes who went over to score his second unconverted try of the match, making it 29-5.

At half-time, the Hampshire team made wholesale changes to their side and things started to unravel for the visitors and New Milton called on strong replacements, making the most of the resources available to them to score four unanswered tries in the second half, three of which were converted to make the score 31-29.

Puddletown did have a chance to win it with the final play of the game, Mercer making a desperate attempt to get into the corner, but an outstanding covering tackle by the home full-back took Mercer into touch on the try line and time was up.

Despite the loss, Puddletown still came away with two bonus points to keep the pressure on Sherborne Seconds at the top of the table.

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