Under-13

WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 0 SHERBORNE 19

A GUTSY effort saw Weymouth & Portland Under-13s fall at the final hurdle in the Dorset & Wilts Plate at Slaughtergate, home of North Dorset RFC.

After both sides probed in a bid to score first, Sherborne managed to break through the Weymouth & Portland defence towards the end of the half, scoring a try after a number of phases as Weymouth simply ran out of numbers in defence. The conversion was missed leaving the score 5-0 at the break.

In the second half, the Weymouth pack struggled in the set-piece, finding themselves hardly able to win any ball in the scrum for the first time this season.

The Sherborne pack made the most of this advantage, applying territorial pressure at the beginning of the half, but Weymouth fought back with some breaks of their own.

From one of the few times they were able to gain clean possession, Jaden Claridge made a break through the heart of the Sherborne defence.

But with Ben Tracey in acres of space and screaming for the ball, Claridge was unable to get the pass off to him and was then brought to ground by a scrambling Sherborne defence.

The missed opportunity proved to be pivotal, as Sherborne then applied more pressure to the Weymouth line, finally cracking the defence and scoring under the posts.

The try was duly converted and, from the resulting restart, Sherborne ran the ball back through a number of missed tackles, their runner finally being brought down by Lucas Bywater metres short of the line.

This time, the Weymouth & Portland defence was unable to reorganise in time, and Sherborne touched down for their third try which again was converted.

Although this should have put the match to bed, the Weymouth & Portland boys kept believing.

They kept trying to break their counterparts down but the Sherborne defence held out, and they finished up comfortable winners.