Last-gasp Phillips earns Blues victory (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Last-gasp Phillips earns Blues victory

9:13am Wednesday 29th February 2012 in Rugby By Ky Capel

SHERBORNE II 13 Bridport 20

A LATE try from Pete Phillips helped secure back-to-back wins for Bridport.

With just three minutes remaining, the Dorset & Wilts One South encounter was delicately poised at 13 apiece.

But late pressure from the visitors paid off as Phillips crossed the whitewash and Luke King added the extras to lift the Blues into fifth spot.

Head coach Mark Botten, whose side entertain rivals Weymouth this weekend (2.30pm), said: “As I said last week, this was a game we targeted to win.

“We managed to field a strong side and it was probably our strongest away side of the season.

“It was an interesting game and they dominated around the fringes and snuffled and killed a lot of ball, which meant we could not get it away as quick as we wanted. We got tied into having a battle up front when normally we try to throw it out wide.

“From the couple of occasions when we were able to throw it wide, we scored our first try through Harry Clark.

“Again it was tough in the second as both sides neutralised one another. But with a few minutes to go we had a string of phases and scored a try to go 20-13 ahead.”

King also converted Harry Clark’s try and dispatched two penalties to complete Bridport’s tally.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash with the league leaders, Botten added: “It’s a local derby and with the momentum we have hopefully it will make selection even stronger.

“We are no pushovers at home and if we can field as strong a side as we can we will be there or thereabouts.

“Weymouth have dominated the league this season and they are definitely the favourites for the title.

“I’m not expecting to win on Saturday but we beat Swanage & Wareham quite comfortably a couple of weeks ago when we weren’t expected to win.

“We can do it, providing we can field a strong side.”