Dorchester lost a hard fought match to their local rivals Sherborne, to continue there disappointing start to the league campaign. The county town side allowed Sherborne to make a strong side, making basic errors at the set piece, which has been their strength in recent weeks.
As early as the 4th minute, Dorchester failed to defend properly at Sherborne's lineout fifteen meters' out, their pack breaking down the blindside to score in the corner. The story continued after 15 minutes when Dorchester failed to secure their own lineout 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 score in the corner.
After a nervous start Dorchester suddenly woke up, and after a nice passage of play up the left hand side of the pitch, the home side won a lineout just inside Sherborne's half. After a good catch and drive at the lineout, which saw Dorchester gain vital meters, Sherborne were penalized for bring down the maul. John Firkin slotted home the penalty to make it 10 - 3 at half time.
Dorchester started the second half like they should have started the first with a new found belief.
They started to play like a side free from nerves and started to move the larger Sherborne pack round the field, players staying on their feet in contact, offloading out of the tackle to waiting support runners. However it was the visitors who scored against the run of play, when after a couple of stoppages for injury, Dorchester lost concentration at a scrum, allowing Sherborne's Number eight to gather the ball and offload to his scrum half to score under the posts.
Straight from the kick off, the home side retained good possession with a number of drives from the forwards putting Sherborne's pack under great pressure, where they gave a penalty about thirty meters out. John Firkin struck the resulting kick to make the scores 15 - 6. Unfortunately it was Dorchester's discipline that allowed Sherborne to score next, when they were caught offside ten meters out. Their fly half kicked the three points.
After 25 minutes after some sustained pressure from Dorchester, fly half John Firkin's attempted drop goal hit the post, but was gathered were the ball was fed down the line for James Spensley to score in the corner. Five minutes later with Dorchester 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 the home side scored the final points of the game, when James Spensley who had a superb game, charged down their full backs attempted clearance to touch down making the final score 26 - 15.
Chris Burtons men can take a great deal of satisfaction out of the game for if they had started the game with the same belief they had at the end, they could easily have won. In the final quarter of the game, some of Dorchester's play was excellent and was without doubt their finest of the season so far. They will approach their next league fixture against North Dorset with real optimism.
Next week away to Wellington in round two of the EDF Energy Senior Vase
Weatherbury Hearn- SEC - JW Scaffolding Man of the Match: Robert Hodges
