SOUTH DORSET GIANTS 26

SOMERSET VIKINGS 66

THE South Dorset Giants suffered a harsh welcome to life in the South West Confer-ence as they went down to a 40-point defeat in the league’s curtain-raiser.

The Giants, who only had two substitutes to call on from a possible seven, started well with both Will Hughes and captain Mark Sample keeping the Vikings at bay.

And it was the Giants who opened the scoring at Ivel Barbarians’ ground as rugby league new boy Tom Smethurst touched down.

However, some sloppy play from the Giants enabled the Vikings to score a basic try. The visitors would have added even more points had it not been for some crunching tackles by man of the match Adam Hoxey.

The Giants seemed to be struggling on the right hand side and the Vikings exploited this weakness by scoring three more tries.

Once the Giants got the ball in their hands they had some great pressure play which saw powerhouse prop Tim Comben barge his way through for a well deserved try.

But basic ball handling errors led to more Somerset pressure, which inevitably brought a further score for the more experienced side.

Hughes though, hit back for South Dorset when he picked up from the base of the scrum and powered through a strong defence to crash over the line and end the half trailing by 24 points.

Following some harsh words from coach Anthony Cowburn the Giants came out in the second half with renewed belief.

The possession changed hands but the Vikings were the more clinical, scoring two more unanswered tries to go 46-12 ahead. South Dorset’s England Lionhearts representative Craig Barter then darted through to reduce the arrears.

Further crazy handling from the Giants enabled the Vikings to add to their lead and effectively put the game beyond doubt.

And the Giants would have been even further behind had it not been for the intervention of full-back Dave Allan.

A fantastic tackle from Will Clarke set up Barter to round off the scoring and bag his second touchdown of the game.

Reflecting on the defeat, Cowburn said: “This was always going to be a hard opening game of the season against the two-time South West champions and last year’s runners-up.

“This is a hard lesson for us. The guys are obviously down about the result but understand that we are a learning team and that we have got lots of talent.

“The Vikings are a very good outfit and I am sure the score will be different when we play them next.

“We struggled with the lack of numbers, which obviously told in the latter parts of both halves, and I cannot stress the importance of more players coming to join the club.

“We are a fantastic bunch and the professionalism is second to none, so if anyone wants to come along we train Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Marsh (6.30pm).”

The Giants’ next outing is a trip to the Devon Sharks today.

For more details on the Giants visit southdorsetgiants.co.uk