Dorchester gain joy at Sherborne (From Dorset Echo)

Dorchester gain joy at Sherborne

8:30am Tuesday 31st January 2012 in Rugby By Andy Haworth

SHERBORNE 10 Dorchester 15

DORCHESTER finally broke their Gainsborough Park hoodoo with a first win at Sherborne for seven years.

The hosts did score tries in the first and last minutes but in between the visitors dominated their opponents, earning a string of penalties that were to win them the game.

In near perfect conditions, Sherborne kicked off and almost immediately opened the scoring.

The county town side were caught cold trying to work out the first of a number of baffling refereeing decisions when the home scrum-half took the penalty and scampered over from 20 metres.

Unfazed by the setback, Dorchester stuck to their game plan, applying pressure in the set-piece, defending aggressively and concentrating on maintaining good field position.

Matt Read had a try disallowed and Rich Bament missed a tricky penalty before the visitors finally got on the scoreboard.

Bament was sharing 10 minutes in the bin with the Sherborne number eight when Dorchester were awarded yet another penalty, so James Baker stepped up to drill over the kick.

Minutes later he repeated the dose to take the visitors into the lead. Just before the end of the first period, Baker kicked a third penalty and Dorchester took a four-point lead into the break.

The next 30 minutes were spent entirely in the Sherbone half but due to a combination of outstanding defending and a lack of precision from the away side’s attack there was no addition to score.

Visiting supporters were beginning to fear the worst until, with 10 minutes left on the clock, Baker kicked his fourth penalty and moments later his fifth to provide the county town with a 10-point cushion.

In the dying moments, in virtually their only attack of the second half, Sherborne did manage to work an overlap for the left winger to cross in the corner and salvage a losing bonus point.

But it was not enough to deny Dorchester a memorable victory in Southern Counties South.

Dorchester: Warren, Miners, Bamlet, Makepeace, Broadbent (Vivian 60), J Gower (Chalker 75), Newsam, C Mitchell, D Gower, Bament, Baker, Waddington, Croft, Fry, Read.

Man of the Match: Matt Read