WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 35

PUDDLETOWN 0

WEYMOUTH & Portland sealed their second derby victory in as many weeks as they did enough to overcome Puddletown at Monmouth Avenue.

Having thumped Dorchester Seconds 53-0 the previous weekend, Paul Harding’s men followed it up with a 35-0 victory over the Villagers, despite having to deal with a vast amount of unavailability.

Joel Wilson and Joe Gibson both had to withdraw from the squad and Harding had to reshuffle the pack.

But Ryan Lewendon, Gary Hamlin and Chris Hurrell were all among the try scorers to ensure the home side picked up the bonus-point and kept the pressure on league leaders Yeovil, who were awarded a home walkover against Ellingham & Ringwood Seconds.

Speaking about Saturday’s victory, head coach Harding told Echosport: “We played okay but it certainly wasn’t vintage.

“I think we played well for the first 25 minutes and went 20-0 up and after that it was pretty scrappy.

“We had a lot of players missing in the end. We ended up going in without a couple who were mentioned previously and then a couple more also pulled out.

“One was a real late call off so we were struggling to get replacements in the end.

“It was a bit of nightmare really.

“Luckily for us, Rich Polley helped us out, he hadn’t played for a while but he came out and made a good contribution.”

On his side’s quest for the title, Harding added: “We just have to keep plugging away really, it is a big game in two weeks’ time against Yeovil.

“Hopefully we will have a good squad to pick from and we will give them a good game.”