If Dorchester had allowed themselves any complacency, given the result in their first fixture against Blandford this season, it was quickly dispelled. As normal Dorchester were soon gathered under their posts, having given away a customary early try. Unlike most other games, 3 more followed for the visitors in the first half hour. This is taking the normal politeness due from a host to an extreme.
Eventually the exhortations of the many “old Glads” on the sidelines took effect, and Dorchester started to play with some coherence. A scrum to Dorchester on the Blandford 5 metre line led (after a slight hiatus while the scrum-half was snaffled by the defence, fortunately presenting the ball cleanly for the blind side winger to pass out) to quick ball to stand-in stand-off Gareth Jones, releasing his skipper Roly Harries to go under the posts; which was duly converted.
This gave Dorchester a boost and a short while later continuous pressure from the forwards on Blandford’s try line wore down the visitors, giving Ed Taylor the chance to flop over the top of a ruck with no opposition guards to score.
Starting the second half Dorchester had to rearrange its scrum due to prop Steve Holland running out of knees, giving newcomer Rob Thomas his opportunity on the wing, replacing Allan Bickley who moved up to hooker. Although this newcomer to the Dark Arts (2nd game in the front row in 33 years) had managed to withstand the Verwood scrum a month earlier (just about), sadly a couple of attempts showed the modified scrum was not steady enough for safety so the rest of the scrums were uncontested.
In the second half Dorchester were much better at holding onto possession, however after a tight period with no team obviously in the ascendancy, Blandford managed two breakaway tries within a few minutes of each other, and Dorchester were in danger of letting despondency take over. A third score seemed on the cards when a penalty was awarded just in front of the posts. Blandford elected to scrum, hoping for 5 or 7 points rather than the almost guaranteed 3, but sturdy defence kept them out, eventually turning over the ball and allowing the home team to work their way clear.
Dorchester sought to add points when the opportunities arose, kicking a penalty but unfortunately missing two, with the ball going beyond the try-line preventing the chasers from retrieving the situation.
As the time remaining decreased it became clear that despite Dorchester being in control (even though they spent the last 8 minutes or so down to 14 as the referee had heard one injudicious remark too many from a Dorchester player and produced a yellow card), they were not going to make up the deficit. However, they were rewarded when Blandford sportingly did not make the ball dead after last play was called on a scrum to them, instead coughing up possession, giving away penalties, with Tim Bowden (I think – apologies to whomever it was if it wasn’t him) crashing over for a consolation try.
This game was definitely something of a wake-up call for the Gladiators team, following the excesses of the Christmas break. Although they won the last 50 minutes of the game (just), they need to be much more alert for next week’s trip to Bournemouth 4 to avoid another shocker like today’s first half hour.
