WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 17

OAKMEADIANS 10

AFTER losing at Bridport last week, victory on Saturday against Oakmeadians lifted the morale of the team and justified the work put in by the coaches and captain Dan Bowditch.

Simon Litster was able to recall Chris Hurrell and Neil Hamilton and also selected Rich Polley, Craig Steele and Johnny Young for their first games of the season.

The visitors kicked off and the signs were ominous as they applied a lot of early pressure and kept the home side penned deep in their own half.

However, Weymouth’s defence was resolute and after a strong run down the middle of the field by Ian Dixon, Oaks were penalised and the resulting kick by Alex Toms found touch deep in the visitors' half.

It was now Weymouth’s turn to pressurise their opposition and the first score came when their pack overpowered the opposition’s scrum and number eight Bowditch took the opportunity to pick up and power over from 10 metres out.

Toms judged the cross wind perfectly for the conversion and Weymouth were 7-0 up.

The next score wasn’t long in coming when from another scrum, against the head, Toms went down the blind side and put Lewis Richards in for the second converted try of the match.

Just before half-time, Oakmeadians pulled the score back to 14-5 when they ran in a try, deep from a quick 22m drop out that caught the home side napping.

The second half was nip and tuck with neither side able to break through impenetrable defences until the visitors crossed the whitewash for their second unconverted try.

Despite intense pressure, Weymouth were only able to add three points to their score when Toms converted a penalty from in front of the posts.

With only a seven-point deficit, Oakmeadians spent the last 10 minutes of the game camped inside Weymouth’s 22 but resolute tackling by Weymouth kept the visitors at bay to secure the first win of the season.

Coach Simon Litster said: “The team is now starting to show it’s true potential, I commend the players for their collective effort.

"Some of last year’s second team have stepped up to the plate and doing themselves and their teammates proud. We still have work to do but things are coming together.”

The Weymouth pack totally dominated the opposition and man of the match was awarded to Chris Norton for his strong tackling and good line-out work.