WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 33

BOURNEMOUTH III 0

WEYMOUTH & Portland head coach Paul Harding hailed his side’s organisation as they returned to winning ways in Dorset & Wilts One South on Saturday.

With the wind at their backs during the opening period against Bournemouth Thirds at Monmouth Avenue, the home side used the conditions to their advantage and kicked strategically to help their cause and build an advantage.

A flurry of first-half tries put the hosts in the box seat and, with the visiting Lions unable to rally following the interval, Harding’s side emerged comfortable winners and even managed to deny their opposition from getting on the board.

Harding told Echosport: “We played well in the first half with some good flowing rugby. There was some strong running from the forwards and some intricate play between backs and forwards – We ran in some really good tries.

“I was pleased with Christian (Lewendon) at fly-half, who had a good game. He is still fairly new to the position but he mixed it up nicely.

“We got our patterns of play working, which we have worked hard on over the last couple of weeks and I think it served us well.

“Everyone looked organised and seemed to know what they were doing rather than just playing off the cuff rugby, where nobody really knows what’s going on. We had a little bit of an advantage knowing how we wanted to play and where we wanted to be.”

Sean Murphy, Carl Neal, Will Quick and skipper Ryan Lewendon were all among an array of try scorers for the hosts but their second-half shut-out also pleased the coach.

He added: “We defended really well in the second half. They had a reasonable amount of time in our half but I felt our first-up defence was very good and our cover defence worked well, it was pleasing.

“We possibly could have gone on and scored a few more in the second half. It’s just a case of keeping our discipline when attacking rather than going for the glory.”

The bonus-point success means Weymouth & Portland have 10 points from their opening three games.