SWANAGE & WAREHAM II 20

BRIDPORT 29

BRIDPORT produced a solid and moral-boosting performance against Swanage & Wareham Seconds to come away with a 29-20 bonus-point win at Bestwall.

Victory took the Blues above Wimborne Seconds into ninth in Tribute Dorset & Wilts One South, eight points behind Oakmeadians.

A dry day together with a strong side in all departments played to the Blues’ strengths and from the kick-off they came firing out of the blocks.

Within five minutes Swans knocked on giving Bridport the put-in in the scrum which they won and Charlie Samways spun the ball out to the backs where a powerful run by Nathan Herbert allowed him to score the first of Bridport’s four tries, converted by Mitch Waters.

READ MORE: Bridport 0-33 North Dorset - match report

For the next 10 minutes the Swans were pinned down within their 22-metre line but no score resulted.

Then the game turned in favour of the strong hosts. A series of driving mauls by the Swans were eventually illegally pulled down by Bridport resulting in a penalty which they chose to put well into touch towards the corner flag.

Swans’ number five was their guaranteed line-out jumper and secured their ball and a strong maul resulted in Swans’ first try which was unconverted.

Scrappy rugby followed with a number of scrums, mauls and line-outs but from one such line-out a speedy Swans prop forward made a clear break for the Bridport line which was touched down but not converted for 10-7.

With only a few minutes left until half-time Samways gathered up a loose ball, fed it out to the backs but there was a knock-on and the scrum won by Swans was kicked into the corner.

The line-out won by Swans’ back row saw the pack drive to Bridport’s line but the ball was knocked forward.

An encouraging team talk at half-time greatly improved Bridport’s overall performance for the second half but not before another unconverted try by Swans following a drive by their forwards against the general run of play.

This goaded Bridport into action and from the kick-off they gathered the ball, spun it along the backs and Sam Petchey made a lightning break only to be bundled into touch just short of Swans’ line. Bridport won this line-out and Jordan Neil scored in the corner, Waters missing the conversion at 15-12.

The following 15 minutes did not produce any attractive rugby from either side until at a Bridport line-out a tapped ball to Samways was fed to Daragh McLoughlin who made one of his storming runs to score another converted try to edge the Blues 19-15 in front.

Bridport hoped that they had then put the game to bed when, after a quick tap penalty, Samways moved the ball quickly to Waters who fed the scoring pass to Harrison Crane to score in the corner, well converted by Waters.

The last 10 minutes were tight with the Swans scoring a try for 26-20 and Waters sealing the game with a last-minute penalty.

The players’ man of the match was Charlie Samways for his tenacious tackling and excellent and well timed passes.

Bridport return to home pastures on Saturday against Bournemouth Thirds (2pm).