DORCHESTER 14 MARLBOROUGH 29

ONCE again, Dorchester let a golden opportunity slip through their fingers and ended up losing a game they had every chance of winning.

Heavy rain during the morning had cleared by kick-off and conditions for the county town side’s Southern Counties South clash with Marlborough at Coburg Road were better than expected.

However, the hosts looked very flat from the off and it was no surprise when the visitors scored the opening try of the game.

The successful conversion was followed by a simple penalty and Dorchester found themselves 10 points down.

Dorchester finally got themselves into the game with 20 minutes gone.

A flowing move from inside their own half involving James Baker and Ryan Haskell saw Rory Greening score under the posts.

Minutes later, Marlborough over-complicated things in their own half and Greening was on hand to steal the ball and run in his second try.

Baker converted both tries to put Dorchester in the lead by four points.

Despite struggling to win any line-out ball, the hosts appeared to be reasonably comfortable, but just before the break a missed tackle allowed the visitors to retake the lead with a converted try.

Dorchester had the benefit of the wind in the second half and dominated the game for the next 20 minutes.

But despite their best efforts, they were unable to break down the visitors’ defence.

Marlborough eventually broke out of their own half and a penalty attempt fell short, but Dorchester failed to clear and, from the resulting scrum, the away side drove over for the decisive try.

As in their previous game, Dorchester appeared to lose heart and the visitors took advantage with another try in the dying moments.

It is clear that Dorchester are now in a relegation battle, however, there were encouraging debuts from youngsters Haskell and George Foot, while Sam Jones gave another immense performance.

But Dorchester need to sort out their line-out and have the confidence to put more width on their game.

Dorchester: Ritchie, Cottell, Hodgson, Makepeace, L King, Hallett, Arnold, S Jones, Allan, C King; Haskell, Greening, Baker, De Kretser, G Foot. Reps: Pengelly, Sharpe, Deakin