DORCHESTER 46

WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 3

DORCHESTER took the derby bragging rights after they took charge of this Dorset & Wilts One South derby.

A perfect day for rugby, saw a good crowd of around 250 at Coburg Road to see the Ridgeway Rumble.

Both sides have not met in the league at first-team level for many years, and it is a good number of years since Dorchester went into a match with Weymouth & Portland as underdogs.

However, the county town side showed that their early season problems were behind them with a dominant performance against their rivals.

Right from the start, Dorchester found gaps in the visitors’ defence and but for a couple of poor passes would have taken an early lead.

The teams swapped penalties before the hosts took control of the game, a multi-phased attack was finished by George Foot’s cleverly delayed pass to centre Jamie Morgan who touched down under the posts.

Baker added the extras and Dorchester soon extended the lead when Foot found another huge gap in the Weymouth defence to cross for a second try.

An early concussion scare for scrum-half Dave Clarke brought Callum King off the bench to take over at number nine and immediately he was in the thick of the action.

Weymouth’s game plan appeared to concentrate on attacking around the fringes of the rucks but Dorchester dealt with everything that the visitors threw at them before a second try from Morgan gave Dorchester a 17-point lead at the break.

If Weymouth were to have any chance of getting back into the contest they needed to score next but it was the home side that dominated the next quarter.

Adam Makepeace crossed for a fourth try, courtesy of an outrageous dummy, with Baker again converting.

Straight from the restart, Dorchester launched another attack which ended with left-wing Toby Waddington touching down in the left-hand corner.

Baker was narrowly wide with the conversion but quickly crossed for a try of his own under the posts which he also converted.

Unsurprisingly, Dorchester appeared to take their foot off the gas for the next 10 minutes allowing Weymouth to camp on their line.

Despite their best efforts, the visitors were unable to break the home defence and then conceded a seventh try when full-back Cameron Lynch sprinted in from halfway. Baker converted to complete the scoring.

Dorchester coach Ben Parker said after the match: “The game was yet another step in the right direction. All week we had focused on the strengths in key areas of our game in preparation.

“I felt we then executed them well against Weymouth & Portland to secure a comfortable bonus point win.

“The game was portrayed in the build-up as a titanic clash, but I was keen to ensure the players didn’t let the occasion run away with them and stayed focused on the game. I felt all 18 players performed very well working as one unit achieving our three match targets.

“There is still plenty of work needed before we face the likes of Yeovil and Salisbury, but if we continue to train hard like in recent weeks and maintain our focus we can push for a top-three finish this season.”

Meanwhile, Weymouth & Portland team manager Vaughan Carter reflected on his side’s defeat.

He said: It’s been a difficult couple of weeks for us, we always said that consolidation in this division after winning promotion from Division Two last season was our primary target.

“It was all too evident from the kick off that most of the Dorchester players’ experience of playing in the Southern Counties South League gave them a big advantage over our youngsters.

“Then added to that, our ever increasing pool of injuries didn’t help, in fact we only had five of the squad who started in our Dorset & Wilts Vase final game three weeks ago available to play, but no excuses you can only play the team in front of you and Dorchester deserved to win the game.

“However, we did have some positives to take away. I thought we had the better of the set scrums and our line-out play has improved, but in defence we were poor, missing too many tackles and the cost that us dearly. We now have the Christmas break to re-group and hope some of the injured players will return in the new year.”

The Ridgeway Rumble turned out to be a whimper for Weymouth, as they failed to score a try, but no doubt they will come back with a vengeance when the two sides lock horns again in April at Weymouth.

To add to the festive cheer the club’s chosen charity Weldmar Hospice were in attendance and raised £65 in a collection at the game, and the post match raffle at the club’s Christmas party raised a further £165 to give them a total on the day of £230.