BOTH of Dorchester’s senior sides return to action on Saturday, with the firsts set to take on Weymouth & Portland in the second part of the Ridgeway Rumble.

The county town side will make the trip down the hill for the encounter with their fierce rivals at Monmouth Avenue in Dorset & Wilts One South.

The Dorchester side will see a few changes, some for returning players, others due to unavailability.

The ever-improving Joe Underhill returns to the front row while the hard-working Laurence Burch steps into the second row. Brad Mullins and Rich Easter take up back row duties.

The backs have a small shake up too with Rob Parker in for George Foot and the evergreen Tom Gower is called in at scrum-half. With the young paring of Julian Dale and Etienne Peach on the wings, speed is there when needed for the visitors.

Speaking ahead of their clash with the Seasiders, Dorchester coach Ben Parker said: “Training was excellent this week in preparation for the return leg of the Ridgeway Rumble.

“Despite several key players being away, we still had plenty of replacements to travel down the hill. We know Weymouth can’t overtake us in the league, but local pride is now at stake and this is a must-win game. Not only that, with 10 points up for grabs and us being only eight behind Salisbury, we could still snatch third place in the league and finish the season strongly.”

Meanwhile, the club’s second XV also have a derby clash of their own when they entertain local rivals Puddletown at Coburg Road in Dorset & Wilts Two South.

The club’s seconds name a strong squad and see former first XV coach Martyn Peel take to the field with his two sons Josh and Alex. Stephen King captains the side, which also sees the return of Dom Smith and Lee Harvey.

Both games kick off at 3pm and are sure to have big vocal crowds cheering their side on. With the weather set fair, some good running rugby should be on offer.

  • After a strong weekend for Dorchester’s junior section, this weekend sees the under-13s head to the western front of Wales on tour, and the under-14s take on Corsham in the Dorset & Wilts cup.

Dorchester’s under-15s entertain Bridport.

The ladies’ XV head into their final game of the season at home against Seaford and hope to entertain a good crowd in an end of season celebration.