Dorset & Wilts Two South

PUDDLETOWN 24 POOLE 0

IN HORRENDOUS conditions at Greenfields it was never going to be a game of open running rugby, but Puddletown did enough to overcome struggling Poole.

The opening exchanges of the clash were even with both sides trying their best to deal with the horrendous conditions.

With a quarter of an hour gone the home side then broke the deadlock.

A quickly taken penalty on the Poole five-metre line saw the Villagers eventually feed the ball to centre Matt Watts, who neatly gathered the ball and drove over between the posts to score.

That try was converted by Sam Bailey.

Puddletown then extended their lead after 20 minutes, initially losing the ball from a scrum five metres out from the visitors’ try line, the ball was won back well on the ground by Tim Yeatman, who fed the ball to home captain Jez Beale who went over to score.

The best score of the game came just before the break, a handling error by Poole in the hosts’ 22 gave the men in red the opportunity to pick up the loose ball.

Watts made a good break and passed outside to speedster Josh Rattle on the wing, he cut back in field and off-loaded back to Watts who was there in support.

Watts then shifted the ball to flanker Chris Haines, who fed full-back Piers Griffiths-Jones, who went over to score between the posts, again Sam Bailey added the extras to make it 19-0.

Going into the second half, the conditions seemed to get worse, with the wet and cold playing havoc with the handling for both sides.

The Villagers who were now playing into a strengthening wind, did their best to keep the ball in hand.

Jumbo Perrett picked up at the base of a midfield scrum on the halfway line and drove forward into the Poole defence.

He offloaded to Yeatman who scythed through the Poole defence into the visitors’ 22. Yeatman fed back to Perrett, who made more ground towards the try line and once again skipper Beale was on hand to receive the ball and to score an unconverted bonus-point try. Halfway through the second half, the visitors were down to 12 players with three men going off injured in quick succession with no replacements.

After discussion between the referee, coaches and both captains the decision was made to end the game early, with the result standing.