WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 12

SHERBORNE SECONDS 26

WEYMOUTH & Portland succumbed to their second home defeat of the season as Sherborne Seconds collected a 26-12 victory in their Wadworth 6X Dorset & Wilts One South clash at Monmouth Avenue.

Played under the lights, the fixture began poorly for the Seahorses as Sherborne’s number seven scored an unconverted try to ease into a 5-0 lead.

However, Weymouth responded when a brave charge down by Scott White blocked the Sherborne full-back’s attempt to clear, allowing White to sprint fully 60 metres and score under the posts.

Alex Toms added the conversion as the hosts moved 7-5 ahead.

The Bear Cubs were undeterred by conceding the lead and they were to lead 15-12 at half-time.

Firstly, the visitors’ number seven grabbed his second try of the game but Weymouth retaliated with a score of their own to reduce the deficit.

Lewis Richards was the try-scorer, crashing over the line after the home pack had battered the fringes of a Sherborne ruck.

White was also sin-binned when holding on in the tackle too long and was fortunate not to concede a penalty try as his opponent bore down on the try-line.

However, Sherborne’s openside flanker completed a fine hat-trick by going over for an unconverted try before two penalties completed the scoring for a triumph that leapfrogs the north Dorset side over Weymouth into fourth.

Speaking to Echosport following the loss, Weymouth & Portland co-coach Anthony Cowburn credited Sherborne for pouncing on his side’s “individual errors”.

He said: “Overall, our team performance was below par. We only had 50 per cent of the team working at their best capacity, with too many individual errors.

“Every individual error we made, Sherborne were able to capitalise on. We didn’t read the game enough and tried to play at their forwards rather than away from them.

“Their man-of-the-match was their number seven. He scored all three of their tries. He’s clearly been playing at a higher level, and still is.

“However, we did have a few stand-out performances in Billy Hayne and Matt Driver.”

On White’s sin-bin, Cowburn added: “They had broken through and he had tackled their player just before he went over.

“He held on to him a bit too long and it was close to a penalty try.

“We had a lot of possession and every time we lost the ball they were able to capitalise. It was quite frustrating for me, because they were beatable.

“Although we’ve got the passion and pride, we don’t know how to play smart rugby.”

Seahorses: Sankey, B Hayne, A Bowditch, Leatham, Richards, Driver, D Hayne, Oaksford, Allan, Toms, White, Cameron, Savage, Rogers, Farley. Reps: Davis, Keable-Kinsella, Berry, Tibble, Hoskins, Harris, Gelderd, Gibson

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