WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 39

YEOVIL 6

WEYMOUTH & Portland collected their third win of the Counties One Tribute Southern South season with a resounding 39-6 success over struggling Yeovil.

The Somerset side are going through a rebuilding process but still pushed the Seahorses close in the first half before the hosts accelerated to victory at Monmouth Avenue.

After 10 games, Rich Bament’s side now sit ninth of the 12 teams in the division, while Yeovil stand 11th with just one win.

Seahorses’ skipper Billy Hayne charged over twice in the first half as Weymouth & Portland used driving mauls to good effect, Eddie van deurs Goss converting once.

READ MORE: Frome 39-5 Weymouth & Portland - report

But Yeovil did score two penalties to keep them honest, going in 12-6 behind at half-time.

However, their Dorset hosts went through the gears after the break as Jordan Gray scored a close-range try, Adam Makepeace added a fourth for the bonus point and Reece Makin went over against his former club.

Van deurs Goss converted the fifth try before Gray completed his personal brace and Finn Pitman unleashed his pace from the home 22, running in a fine counter-attack try to complete the scoring.

Speaking to Echosport, Bament said: “They’re a little nuggety side, they’re coached by Ben Parker so I knew they’d be organised.

“They’re obviously going through a tough time and having a rebuild up there. In the first 20 minutes we struggled but we did get a couple of scores.

“Then we tried to overcomplicate it and played from deep, which invited pressure on our line, so the next 20 minutes were about defending.

“It was a stop-start affair because we weren’t doing things how we were meant to do them. Luckily, we held out. They got two penalties but we turned round 12-6.”

He added: “We had a chat about what Yeovil were doing to stop us playing our game and changed a few things.

“We just played our game instead of going for miraculous plays. The majority of the game was in their half for the second half.

“All through the season we’ve given a fairly good account of ourselves. We’ve been a bit naïve in some games but we pushed North Dorset and Sherborne really close.

“Apart from the game against Swanage where we completely self-combusted, we’ve played well, we just haven’t got over the finishing line.

“Yes, I’d like to be a bit further up the table but, where we are, I’m happy with. From what we’ve seen, I think we’ll be OK with plenty more home games to come.”

Weymouth & Portland’s next outing comes at Combe Down on Saturday, December 2.

Joe Gibson (hand) is expected to return but Tim Comben (bicep) and Luke Beynon (collar bone) are long-term casualties.