Another week, another massive drop in player numbers on the day. At 9 am Saturday morning the Gladiators had 19 players, but by 2 pm they were down to 11 ½.
Fortunately, Bournemouth had plenty of players so lent enough to allow a start with 15, and also kept the numbers topped up as the game progressed. Less fortunately, they insisted on taking the points so the game was played as a friendly – a wise decision as it turned out! Scrums were uncontested from the start – a little disappointing, but less so on seeing the Bournemouth front row!
Having spent the period immediately before kick off in attempting to get a team together, rather than warming up, Dorchester began in their usual disorganised fashion with Bournemouth quickly scoring an unconverted try. However, the home side were lifted when Sam Scott, in his senior team debut (along with several other colts), intercepted a loose pass and sprinted 60 metres to score, converted by a Bournemouth player who had been loaned to us and appointed to scrum half (who had an excellent game – he’s definitely selected for us for our next match!).
Bournemouth struck back with another unconverted try, but again a swift riposte, this time from Tom Caines (returning from injury – he’s the ½, though as it turned out he managed ¾ ), put Dorchester 14-10 up. The second quarter consisted mostly of the hosts staving off a prolonged period of pressure, with an impressive rolling maul denied at the last by Dan Underhill.
In the second half Dorchester’s mix of experience, youth and borrowed players seemed to gell better. The youthful back row were making good carries, backed up by the evergreen presence in the second row of Iain Adshead. James Bickley’s unusual approach to playing fly half (his first game there, and first senior game) seemed to confuse the opposition (i.e. hang on to the ball and try to wriggle through – or sprint off sideways – anything except simply passing) and he made good ground as a result. Eventually Underhill went over in the corner, producing a superb conversion.
A short while later a Bournemouth loan player found himself on the line, couldn’t bring himself to score against his own side and popped the ball to Caines for his second. The scoring was concluded by Lewis Glynn (another seniors debutant) running a tap penalty in.
Next week the Gladiators are scheduled to be at home to New Milton III.
The Gladiators are Dorchester's third team. 
