LYTCHETT MINSTER 10

WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 29

WEYMOUTH & Portland continued their superb Wadworth Dorset & Wilts One South form with a laboured 29-10 win at Lytchett Minster.

While the Seahorses were not at their silky best in an attritional 11th win of the season, another bonus-point victory keeps Rich Bament’s troops in second place behind unbeaten Dorchester.

Weymouth went 3-0 down after the kick-off as Lytchett punished an infringement to score a penalty, leading to concerted pressure from the Seahorses.

A 20-minute stop-start spell saw Weymouth and Portland creep up the pitch without troubling the scorers until James Cooper scored a converted try off a rolling maul, Alex Toms adding the extras.

Toms added a penalty for 10-3 and the Seahorses scored with the final play of the half when Cooper crossed the whitewash in the corner, Tom converting for a 17-3 lead at the break.

Weymouth & Portland elevated their game in the first 10 minutes of the second half as Andy Bowditch stormed off the back of a scrum to score a converted try.

Bament’s troops lost their fluency as the half progressed into another fragmented display, but Bowditch did manage to add his second try to secure the bonus point, Toms missing the conversion.

Lytchett battled on and were rewarded with a consolatory converted try of their own.

Speaking to Echosport, Bament expressed his satisfaction with the result but felt the Seahorses were below-par for much of the contest.

He said: “I’m delighted, it wasn’t a classic – in fact it was quite hard to watch in patches.

“There was a lot of endeavour but we didn’t play to our true potential and the guys know that and agree with it as well.

“It was a very stop-start and performance. It’s (because) we haven’t played. Of their past four games we’ve had two cancelled on us – (Dorset) Dockers cancelled on us the week before.

“The last game before Christmas Swanage pulled out, then it was the Christmas break and we had Salisbury away, so we only had one training session before that.

“Then we had this week, so it’s a combination of two games in a six-week period.”

He added: “It was an away win, with five points, so that’s what we went for.

“I was hoping when we got the bonus point that we would kick on, but it was just one of those days – a frustrating day. But we got the main goal of winning.”

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