Dorchester made hard work of this, their third league win on the bounce. There was none of the free following rugby evident in previous weeks but Dorchester’s forwards buckled down and ground out the victory in the second half.
The visitors were asked to play with the strong wind in the first half and were soon on the board. Ivel were forced to concede a five metre scrum from which the ball was passed out to right wing Jamie Morgan. Faced by only his opposite number and with ten metres to work in there was only going to be one result. Morgan duly touching down for the opening try. Rich Bament converted and then added a penalty to put Dorchester ten points up.
The visitors then lost their way, incurring the displeasure of the referee who awarded a series of penalties against them. Then with Tom Gower in the sin bin the Ivel winger exploited the extra man to score in the right corner. Bament kicked a second penalty but then more sloppy defending allowed Ivel a second unconverted try before the end of the half.
With Dorchester having to play into the wind in the second period and with only a three point lead things were not looking too good. Ivel, however, appeared to change their tactics and tried to bully the Dorchester forwards into defeat. The visitors for their part were in no mood to allow this to happen and, with both scrum and line out functioning well; they dominated the second forty minutes.
Tom Gower was on hand to touch down after Bament’s run was held a metre short and captain Steve Hodgson strolled in after another perfectly executed front peel. Bament converted the first of the two tries and Dorchester were done and dusted. Ivel did manage to score a converted try deep into injury time but it was too little too late.
Acheson Construction man of the match: Stephen Hodgson.
Team: Hodgson, Chalker, Bamlet, Hodges, King, Gower T, Newsam, Rochfort; Biddle, Jones; Biswell (Gower J HT), Read, Harvey, Morgan; Bament;
