WIMBORNE 24 DORCHESTER 13

TWO tries in as many minutes decided this Southern Counties South match and ended Dorchester’s hopes of victory.

Despite having to make a host of changes from last week, the struggling county town side started confidently and were matching their opponents in all phases.

The two debutants in the front row, Chris Elliott and Joe Underhill, were in no trouble and the visitors were winning plenty of set-piece ball. However, it was the hosts who opened the scoring, with the right-winger scoring in the corner. 

Dorchester hit back quickly when James Baker and Rory Greening combined to send Rich Deakin in for the equalising try.

The visitors then took the lead as Baker popped over a simple penalty goal.

It was at this point the the game turned on its head.

Dorchester conceded a soft try under the posts and, straight from the restart, conceded again. Both tries were converted and suddenly the visitors trailed by 11 points.

The second half turned into a battle of attrition as neither side could gain the upper hand.

Wimborne looked the more dangerous but Dorchester’s scramble defence restricted them to a single unconverted try.

For their part, the visitors also scored an unconverted try, Baker getting the touchdown following a period of sustained pressure on the Wimborne line.

Dorchester: Hodgson, J Underhill, Elliott, Makepeace, Hallett, Arnold, Bowden, Dooley, Bosher, Foot, Haskell, Greening, Baker, Deakin, Clark, L King, Robson, M Evans

* Weymouth & Portland’s Dorset & Wilts League Two game against Fordingbridge on Saturday was postponed at the visitor’s request