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Dorset County U13 Rugby - Plate Final
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The crowds gathered on a cold but dry morning at the Blandford RFC pitches, with the elegant backdrop of Bryanston giving contrast to the modern buildings of the school. The anticipation of a battle-royal against North Dorset, one of the strongest clubs in the county, causing butterflies for the assembled on-lookers.
North kicked the game into action and the Dorchester forwards collected the ball efficiently and launched an attack through a couple of phases of play – unfortunately knocking-on in a good position – Scrum to North. Dorchester pressure from the back row of Lee Sawyer and James Thompson forced the error from North, and Dorchester were awarded the resulting scrum. Referee judged the put-in to the scrum to be not straight and reversed the award. Dorchester forwards put in a great response and won the scrum against the head and generated a couple of excellent phases of play with the forwards and backs interlinking well. Jamie Brown received the ball on the far right of the pitch just inside the opposition 22, broke 2 tackles and scored in the corner (5-0). The extremely tight angle was always going to be a challenge, but the conversion only just missed – just clipping the posts and dropping forward.
North restarted with a deep kick. The ball was collected by Ryan Haskell who fully exploited North’s lapse of concentration and spectacularly ran through the entire team to score under the posts (10-0). Casper Bailey did the honours with the conversion (12-0).
The line-out following the restart was won by North who put together an efficient maul – the resulting release to their backs was repulsed with gutsy tackling by the Dorchester back row and three-quarters. North knocked-on and the following scrum generated a great break for the Dorchester backs – Jack Warburton, Tim Williams and Jamie Brown made an advance of 30 metres but at the breakdown the ref awarded a penalty to North for an off-side (somewhere – the crowd didn’t spot it . . . .). North didn’t make much use of the penalty and Dorchester forced another attack and were camped 5 metres from their line before conceding a free kick and 15 metres of position. Again, North failed to use the possession and Fred Biles did all the hard work to get the ball to within 2 metres of line. Jack Warburton collected the ball from the back of the ruck and just needed to fall over the line to score (17-0). Again, Casper converted for the extra 2 points (19-0).
North’s bizarre re-start confused the Dorchester team and caused them to knock-on as they collected the ball. North won the resulting scrum and they launched their attack on the blind-side. Tim Williams, George Voss and Jamie Brown repulsed them with some solid tackling and brought North’s attack to an end as they knocked-on. Will Caldwell cleaned-up from the back of Dorchester’s scrum and started another attacking phase. A knock-on by Dorchester generated another scrum for North, but they wheeled it, so the put-in was awarded to Dorchester. An excellent scrum got the ball from Casper Bailey to Jack Warburton and then to Ryan. With Jamie Brown and Tim Williams on his outside, an off-load would have been a certain try, but Ryan was brought down by some resolute defending by North.
North fumbled the ball as they came forward and again Will made an excellent drive from the back of the scrum to the tryline – being held-up just short. The referee awarded a penalty to North for some ill-disciplined hands in the ruck. Tim Williams picked-up from the penalty and launched an attack with Jamie Brown. A scrum was awarded to Dorchester from the next breakdown. The front-row battle – usually the most confrontational part of the game – was being well won by Luke Robson, Jamie Russell and Fred Biles. Another scrum secured and excellent work between Casper Bailey and James Thompson released Jack Warburton for another try in the far right corner (24-0) – Half Time. Replacements Jamie Gannaway, Theo Boyeson and Joe Waterman came on for Tim Williams, Lee Sawyer and Jamie Russell.
From the restart, Dorchester were back on the attack and immediately put North under pressure with a scrum 5 metres from their line. North won the scrum and kicked to touch to clear their lines. At the line-out, the Dorchester 2nd row of Dan Allen and Theo Boyesen secured the ball and the forwards made a surge forward. A fumble in the passing gave away a scrum which North wheeled too far enabling Casper Bailey to make a snappy steal and release Ryan Haskell to surge forward, flipping a pass to Jack Warburton who scored just to the right of the posts (29-0). An easy conversion for Casper (31-0).
North made a much more effective re-start and managed to collect their own ball. Persistent running and better retention got them to the Dorchester line despite the defensive tackling of James Thompson, Will Caldwell and Casper Bailey. North were awarded a 5 metre scrum having been bravely held-up on the line by the back row and Gabriel Whale, but wheeled it again (primarily due to the height imbalance on their front-row) – this time they were penalised by the referee and the scrum was awarded to Dorchester. From the back of the scrum the ball was released to Jack Warburton who was halted by the defending North team – from the next phase, Theo Boyesen , Jamie Gannaway and Fred Biles were on the rampage and made 30 metres towards the line only to be halted at the next ruck due to ‘hands-in’ again (tut, tut).
Replacement George Foot came on for Gabriel Whale.
From the penalty, George Voss collects from deep with an excellent, secure catch and launches an attack from deep and links up with Jamie Brown who makes 40 metres to get near the North line before being bundled-out by the defence. Dorchester win North’s line out (excellent work by the 2nd row again with Fred Biles avoiding North’s exceptionally tall No.8/prop), the ball was quickly passed to Casper Bailey, Jack Warburton and to Jamie Brown who sprinted for the line – causing the coaches near apoplexy as he adopts (for those with a knowledge on 1970’s tv) the bionic-man ‘slow-mo’ effect – but still manages to score (36-0). Even if he hadn’t made it, he was excellently tracked by George Foot who was on his shoulder, ready to finish. Casper added to his points tally with another successful conversion (38-0). Henry Bradbury comes on to replace Fred Biles after his great performance.
North re-start and Dorchester make a tidy job of feeding the ball out from the forwards – Jack Warburton takes it on and exploits a phase of poor tackling by North and carries the ball 40 metres to score under the posts (43-0). A simple conversion for Casper (45-0) and the coaches are now starting to relax.
Casper Bailey collects from the restart and passes out to Luke Robson as they storm up the pitch again. Progress is halted and scrum against is awarded. Again, against the strength of the Dorchester front row of Henry Bradbury, Luke Robson and Joe Waterman, North are forced to wheel the scrum and it is re-set. Casper Bailey picks up as the ball emerges from North’s side of the scrum, kicks ahead, collects and scores (50-0). At this point, the referee has seen enough and ends the game.
The Dorchester supporters cheered this famous and convincing victory and the team celebrated by drenching 2nd row Dan Allen for having to leave straight away to play football !!
The coaches were so overcome by the result, they could barely speak, but Graham managed a few, choked words ‘when the ball is passed out wide quickly, the backs can really exploit their talents, run strongly and be a very potent, dangerous force. Boys did really well to play in a Plate final against a strong side and put up such a convincing display. Not conceding any points was a testament to the team’s consistent determination and concentration . . . and so on’. Richard grinned manically, Andy said ‘Cheese’!
