Twickenham Bound Dorset & Wilts Under 20 squad will play East Midlands at Headquarters on June 15th in the Jason Leonard County Under 20 Championship.
Sporting contests are sometimes decided by the narrowest of margins and three Dorset & Wilts County rugby teams entered the weekend with all of them having the possibility to run out onto the hallowed turf at Twickenham Stadium over the County Championship Finals weekend in a fortnight’s time.
Only the Twin Counties Under 20 squad made it through the semi-final stage, beating Hampshire at North Dorset Rugby Club on Sunday afternoon by 26 points to 25.
They didn’t make it easy for themselves. Racing into the 26 points 13 lead at the break, they appeared to be cruising towards an easy victory. Then, after the turnaround, one of the Dorset & Wilts forwards was penalised for an unsafe tackle. The referee adjudged it serious enough to issue the red card option, and Dorset & Wilts had to play the remaining 35 minutes of the second half with only 14 players on the park.
This seemed to lift Hampshire and they responded by crossing for two tries, one converted to add to the one they scored in the first half.
Only a single point now separated the two sides and it required a sometimes desperate rearguard action to prevent the visitors from adding to their tally and snatching a late victory. However, resolute defence prevented any further scoring, and it is Dorset & Wilts who will run out at Twickenham on June 15th at 1:00 p.m. against the East Midlands Under 20.
Scorers.
Tries. Finn Raworth, Bournemouth 2, Rhys Gosling, Wimborne & George Yarwood, Bournemouth.
Conversions. Connor Moore, Bournemouth 3.
The Senior Men’s squad travelled to Droitwich to play the North Midlands and with a quarter of an hour to go, they led by 10 points, 31 to 21. As the game progressed, the Midlands chipped away at the deficit. Going into the final minute of the game, Dorset & Wilts held a narrow 2-point lead
Then one of the Dorset & Wilts players gave away a penalty that was duly converted and with only seconds remaining, there was no time to respond and the visitors had to settle for a 32 points to 31 defeat.
After the game, Dorset & Wilts manager Rich Elliott said: “I couldn’t ask any more of the lads who turned out for us this afternoon; they were just a couple of minutes away from a Twickenham final. It would be easy to say that enforced changes to our side cost us the game, but that would be unfair to the lads who put their bodies on the line for their country. We just came up short this afternoon”.
The Twin Counties Women’s squad had an outside chance of progressing into the Gill Burns’ County Final. Firstly, they had to beat Middlesex at Melksham and then hope that other results would go their way.
They completed their part of the permutation, beating their guests by 20 points to 15, but other results did them no favours.
The highlight of the game was winger Charlotte Wellon’s performance, as she banked all four tries on her home ground.
After the game, Clair Chard was presented with a County Blazer by manager Emma Santer to mark her 15 appearances for Dorset & Wilts.
Clair is the first woman to achieve this milestone.
Charlotte in action for Dorset & Wilts.
For more images of the Twin Counties Women’s squad and the Under 20 game at North Dorset see Idris Martin’s website here:
https://idrismartin.wordpress.com
