SWANAGE & WAREHAM III 20 DORCHESTER III 21

DORCHESTER made it through to the quarter-finals of the Dorset & Wilts 3rd XV Cup following a win over Swanage & Wareham by the slenderest of margins.

Despite playing in the division below their hosts, the county town side were determined to give a good account of themselves.

The Swans saw plenty of the ball early on, although the visitors’ defending was excellent.

The hosts thought they had crossed for an early try but the referee said the scorer had been held up.

However, soon after, the home side did cross the whitewash to go in front. The conversion was missed.

Dorchester applied more pressure from the restart and a break down the right by Andy Matthews reached the Swans’ 22.

The ball was switched to the left and then back to the midfield where Cameron Lynch, passing through a stretched Swans’ defence, touched down under the posts. Jamie Morgan converted.

The away side again made a mess of the restart, leading to a period of Swans’ pressure in the Dorchester half.

When the visitors did manage to win the ball, full-back Morgan was isolated by three of the hosts and an attempted chip only resulted in a second Swans’ try.

A third followed soon after as a clearance was charged down. Neither were converted but the Swans led 15-7 at the break.

The second half saw Dorchester take a grip on the game, but unfortunately their attempts to win the ball from rucks were often judged illegal, giving rise to a whole string of penalties.

Fortunately for the visitors, the Swans insisted on kicking to touch, even when well within range of the posts.

A rare Dorchester advance down the right wing ended with Tom Gower scoring out wide, leaving Morgan with a tricky conversion which he slotted.

That brought the Swans’ lead down to a single point. But the hosts were not going to lie down and they scored again to give them more breathing space.

With 10 minutes to go, Lynch latched on to a loose Swans’ pass on halfway and scampered all the way to the posts, evading numerous tackles for his second score.

Morgan’s simple conversion put Dorchester in the lead by a point.

The visitors advanced into the hosts’ territory when a series of penalty decisions went against them, bringing the Swans to within striking distance of a winning score.

The ball was passed to a forward who went on the charge but with his support slow in arriving it was Dorchester’s turn to force the penalty.

A simple clearance to touch followed and Dorchester were through to the next round by the skin of their teeth.