Match Report: East Dorset Dockers

Bridport overcame the disappointment of their narrow defeat last week with a superb second half performance, outplaying an East Dorset side who started the day nine points above the Daggers in the league table.

With a display of attacking rugby Bridport ran in four second half tries to end up comfortable winners 38-26.

From the kick off East Dorset Dockers exerted pressure through their forwards but a knock on gave the Daggers a scrum on halfway. Sam Roberts-Wray received the ball on the left wing and with an electric burst of pace beat the cover defence and offloaded to Nathan Herbert who ran in unopposed under the posts. The Dockers came back strongly into the Bridport half and with the Daggrs line out under pressure they forced their way up to the line. Bridport had Roberts-Wray yellow carded for hands in the ruck and forced their way over to equalise the scores. From the kick off the East Dorset backs showed their pace and ran the ball back to score a converted try in the corner. Bridport lifted their game and after East Dorset were unable to clear their lines the Daggers forwards set up a good position in the 22 and an excellent long pass allowed Oscar Tompkins to score a converted try in the corner. With half time approaching East Dorset were able to capitalise on some poor defending to score under the posts and a 21-14 lead.

The second half started with East Dorset on the offence putting some long kicks into the Blues 22 which despite good returning by Harrison Crane they could not make any inroads into the East Dorset half and after a good break by their forwards the Dockers backs spread the Bridport defence and scored and unconverted try.

Bridport, once again, lifted their game and the forwards were now starting to dominate in the scrum creating a series of drives and forcing East Dorset to infringe. From the quickly taken penalty the backs moved the ball quickly to Roberts-Wray to score in the corner. Bridport now had the upper hand forcing East Dorset back into their 22 and creating unforced errors. From a line out the ball went loose and a clever cross kick was collected by Tompkins who offloaded to Jordan Neil for an excellent converted try to equalise the scores at 26-26. The Daggers now sensed victory and with the kick off not 10 yards an attempted kick through from the scrum was returned by East Dorset into touch on the Bridport 22. From the line out Crane timed his run to perfection to break the defence and with the backs handling crisply the ball was out to Roberts-Wray who again out paced the defence to score his second try. It was all Bridport now and after a rare East Dorset attack broke down Herbert broke the gain line and the quick hands of the Bridport backs put Roberts-Wray in for his hat trick.

Captain Andrew Livingston said” This result has been coming and is well deserved for all the boy’s efforts over the opening games. Last week was a massive disappointment for us all but to come back and win like we have today speaks highly of the team’s determination to do the Bridport shirt and supporters proud. In two weeks’ time we will travel to Wimborne and will be looking for a consecutive five point win to start to move us up the table to somewhere nearer to where we belong.”