Southern Counties South

DORCHESTER 15

SHERBORNE 26

DORCHESTER'S disappointing start to the campaign continued with a hard-fought defeat against local rivals Sherborne at Coburg Road.

The county town side made too many basic errors at set-pieces and that allowed the visitors to score at regular intervals.

As early as the fourth minute, Dorchester failed to defend properly at a Sherborne line-out just 15 metres out. The away side's pack took full advantage by breaking down the blind side to score in the corner.

The story continued on 15 minutes when Dorchester failed to secure their own line-out and after a couple of rucks in the middle of the pitch, the visitors spread the ball to the left where they had created an overlap for their winger to cross with ease.

Eventually the hosts woke up and after a nice passage of play up the left hand side of the pitch, the home side won a line-out just inside Sherborne's half.

A good catch and drive saw Dorchester gain vital metres and under pressure Sherborne were penalised for bringing down the maul. John Frikin slotted home the penalty to make it 10-3 at the break.

The hosts started the second half with a lot more belief and they soon began to move Sherborne's larger pack around the field.

However, it was the visitors who scored next against the run of play when Dorchester lost con- centration at a scrum allowing Sherborne's number eight to offload to his scrum-half to score under the posts.

From the restart the hosts retained good possession with several drives from the forwards which resulted in the visitors handing them a penalty 30 metres out. Firkin converted to make the score 15-6.

Sherborne landed a three-pointer of their own moments later but the home side then replied with a try.

Firkin's attempted drop goal hit a post and when the ball ran loose to Dorchester hands it was fed down the line to James Spensley who crossed in the corner.

Five minutes later, with the hosts chasing the game, the ball was lost in contact and Sherborne reacted quickly to break down the blind side and score in the corner.

The visitors added a further three points before Spensley scored his second try after charging down an attempted clearance.

Chris Burton's men can take a great deal of satisfaction out of the game despite the end result. If Dorchester had started the game with the same belief they had at the end, they would easily have won.

In the final quarter of the game, some of the home side's play was excellent and they will now approach their next league fixture against North Dorset with real optimism.

Dorchester Man of the Match: Robert Hodges South West Two East HENLEY WANDERERS 18 SWANAGE & WAREHAM 25 SWANAGE ran in four tries to stay in second place behind Chippenham and keep up their fine run of form.

Mike McKeown fed winger Charlie Parish to open the scoring for the visitors but after both sides traded penalties, Henley hit back with a touch-down of their own from Mike Metcalfe to level the score at 8-8 going into the break.

McKeown wriggled over early in the second half and with Parish adding the conversion Swans looked like they would take control, but back came Henley again with Andy Downing breaking clear and scoring in the corner. Sutton majored and the score was again all square at 15-15.

Sutton then added a penalty to put his side in front for the first time but the visitors finished the stronger side with Robert Elford and Gavin Steeden both touching down to land Swans the win.