WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 19

DORSET DOCKERS 53

WEYMOUTH and Portland fell to a tough 53-19 defeat against a Dorset Dockers side that Seahorses’ boss Simon Litster is tipping for the title.

Weymouth started in superb form.

The match was Liam Berry’s final game for the Seahorses, as he turns to focus on work commitments.

Lewis Allan made a great break forward which led to Weymouth camped in the Dockers’ half for 10 minutes but they could not find the breakthrough, and continued to pressure for a further five minutes.

A mistake allowed the Dockers to break and run the length of the pitch to notch the first try of the match however.

The Dockers then blitzed the Seahorses with three tries in quick succession to shock the home side.

Weymouth were able to regoup however, and from a Dorset line-out Andy Bowditch pounced upon a loose pass to score and get the home side on the board at 19-17.

However, another counter-attack saw the Dockers make the most of their considerable pace to again score.

Weymouth again came back though as Dave Oaksford fed Allan who went over to move the score to 24-12.

However, the Dockers again stormed the Weymouth defence to make the half-time score 36-12.

Weymouth were able to respond through Bowditch with his second try to narrow the score to 36-19.

However a three-try spell in the last 10 minutes saw the Dockers expand the scoreline further to a healthy 53-19.

Weymouth almost scored a try with the last action of the match but the ball went to ground before they could get over the line, with the final score a 53-19 loss for the Seahorses.

Litster said: “Unpleasant but not too unpredictable. They are a very good team. We are disappointed but there are some positives to come out of it.

“We played for 80 minutes with just one or two lapses of concentration.

“I think actually we gifted them three tries so three of the nine tries were preventable.”

“I would say that that side the Dorset Dockers, I would be very surprised if they do not win the league.

“We will see what happens but they were good.”

Weymouth travel to Blandford on Saturday.

Weymouth: Comben, B Hayne,Gelderd, Norton, Bowditch, D Hayne, Oaksford, Allan,Toms, Harris, Richards, Savage, Rogers, Farley, Subs: Sankey, Hamilton, Tibble, Hoskins.