NEW MILTON II 8 WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 43

TWO Steve Nation-Grainger tries and 13 points from Bryn Llewellyn helped Weymouth & Port-land secure the first win of Paul Harding’s second spell in charge.

The visitors scored crossed the New Milton try line seven times in all, with debutant Chris Lewendon also among the scorers.

Harding’s men were comfortable winners in the end but it was the home side that had opened the scoring with a penalty early on.

However, once Weymouth & Portland found their bearings there was only going to be one outcome.

Inside-centre Joe Gibson finished off a flowing move to put the away side 5-3 up. Llewellyn converted.

Then Lewendon, brother of full-back Ryan, jinked his way to the whitewash for Llewellyn to add the extras.

Two more tries followed before the break, the first coming through fly-half Nation-Grain-ger, the second courtesy of outside centre Llewellyn.

He converted his own score to give the visitors a healthy 26-3 half-time advantage.

Nation-Grainger added his second try after the interval and then second row Jonathan Mason crossed for a well-deserved five points.

The scoring was completed when number eight Sean Murphy crashed over and Llewellyn converted.

“It was good to get the win,” said Harding. “They put us under pressure in the first 15 minutes but once we got our defence sorted they didn’t really trouble us.

“We saw the benefits of what we have been doing in training, and that was one of the most pleasing things for me.

“I think Steve Nation-Grainger is going to be a really good player at fly-half and Jonathan Mason had a great game in the second row.

“We were struggling for a front row and Chris Hurrell, who wasn’t feeling well, took one for the team by filling in.”

Weymouth & Portland Seconds also won, beating New Milton’s third XV 14-7 in Dorset & Wilts Three South.

However, the thirds had to forfeit their Dorset & Wilts Four clash at Ellingham & Ringwood Thirds due to a lack of players.

With that in mind, Harding is welcoming new faces to training in a bid to boost numbers.

For anyone interested, sessions at Monmouth Avenue take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.45pm to 8pm.