NEW MILTON II 41

BRIDPORT 24

THE BLUES suffered a disappointing defeat after a good first half against New Milton, despite an emphatic 71-15 win against Lytchett Minster last week.

The Blues got off to a good start keeping New Milton pinned in their half for the first five minutes.

When New Milton cleared their half the ball went to Jon Butler who put Freddie Woolner away and with a weaving run down the wing he went over for the first try, converted by Mitch Waters.

From the restart the Blues were straight back on the scoreboard after Mike Pibworth took a clean catch, putting Nathan Herbert through the defence who then offloaded to Woolner for his second try.

New Milton then began to exert pressure in the scrums and following good pressure they came through the Blues defence to score a converted try.

The Blues responded strongly and forced New Milton to concede three penalties in a row allowing them to gain territory into New Milton’s 22.

Woolner then put out a good pass to Tom Gamwell who was able to support Ellis Blackburn who went over in the corner for his first try for the senior team.

New Milton again exerted their influence in the scrums and, after three resets, attacked down the left wing and went over for an unconverted try.

The rucks and mauls were well fought and defended by the Blues particularly with a great debut from Sam Roberts-Wray at scrum half.

Another penalty was given to Bridport following a sin binning for a New Milton player.

The ball was offloaded to Pibworth who was able to dive through the opposition and ground the ball for the bonus point try which Waters converted.

Defensive errors from Bridport allowed the New Milton runners to breach the defence and they scored two further tries to level the scores at 24-24 at half time.

New Milton started the second half well as they spun the ball down their backline and missed tackles allowed them to score an unconverted try.

New Milton exploited the weakness in the Blues backs to score two further tries in the last 10 minutes to come out 41-24 winners.

Sam Roberts-Wray won the Blues’ Man of the Match on his debut while the excellent all round play of Ellis Blackburn impressed.

The Blues next match is home to Wimborne on Saturday 11th November.