BOURNEMOUTH THIRDS 66

WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 17

WEYMOUTH & Portland’s season ended with a difficult 66-17 defeat at the hands of Bournemouth Thirds, to finish exactly half-way down the Wadworth 6X Dorset & Wilts One South table.

As a result, the Seahorses finish sixth, with nine wins, one draw and 10 losses during the season, while Andy Bowditch’s double makes him the top try scorer for Weymouth this season with 13.

Weymouth were stunned early on as their opponents blitzed them in the early stages of the match.

Bournemouth scored after a scrum in the first minute to set an early tone.

After 20 minutes, Bournemouth led 31-0 but the Seahorses began to reply at this point.

The visitors began playing to their strengths and started to maintain better possession.

This saw dividends from a line-out and Bowditch scored an unconverted try.

Another score from a five-metre scrum came when Dave Oaksford had a simple try.

Bournemouth replied to make it 38-10, before Bowditch added a second try to make it 38-17 at the break.

However, Bournemouth re-established their dominance after 10 minutes.

Matt Lang then came on and had a good performance in his first appearance for the senior side.

However, the Seahorses gave away another couple of tries and were unlucky not to have scored again.

Luke Beynon was named man of the match by the Seahorses, as he broke through the home side’s defence numerous times and made some great tackles.

Bournemouth ran in two tries in the last five minutes to add further salt to the Seahorses’ wound.

Weymouth coach Simon Litster said: “Not the result I expected but secretly I suppose I did, because it was a completely different side to the one that came down to us.

“Their number nine was an extremely accomplished scrum-half who tore us apart.

“We were basically caught asleep and it took us a while to wake up, whether our mojo had disappeared or not I don’t know.

“The lads were happy that they really did not just collapse and fold and competed for large parts of the game, and we did actually have a reasonable amount of possession.

“It was a shame not to go out on a high.”

Discussing Lang, Litster said: “A very good player and actually belies his age. He is only just 17, he played with a lot of maturity and carried well.”

Seahorses: Comben, Sankey, Bowditch, Leatham, Richards, Driver, B Hayne, Oaksford, Barter, Allan, Keeble-Kinsella, Beynon, Avant, Farley, Toms. Reps: Tibble, Lang, Gibson, Hoskins, Abel

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