WIMBORNE II 32 WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 12

A CHANGED Weymouth & Portland side suffered their second defeat of the campaign at Wimborne in Dorset & Wilts One South.

Having made the trip with as many as six changes from the previous week in their starting XV, the Monmouth Avenue side actually started quite brightly but failed to convert their opening burst into points on the board.

Wimborne set the ball rolling with a penalty and then a try of their own at the other end, and from then the hosts ran riot, surging into a 32-0 lead.

The away side rallied in the latter stages and were rewarded with a couple of tries but it was too little, too late.

Paul Harding’s side also lost skipper Ryan Lewendon, Bryn Lewellyn and Will Quick throughout the encounter, all to injury to add to their squad woes.

Harding told Echosport: “We didn’t play as well as we could and there were a lot of changes.

“A couple couldn’t travel, a couple were then unavailable. A couple were also hit with illness I think.

“It’s disappointing because we wanted to build on what was a good performance the previous week but you never seem to get that continuity. But the guys who came in did well and did their best.”

Focusing on the positives, Harding singled out powerhouse Tim Comben as his star performer.

He added: “Tim took over the captaincy when Ryan went off and I thought he led by example. Especially in spearheading that late fight-back.

“We could have had a try or two tries in that last spell, which would have made it interesting.”