EAST DORSET 27 WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 12

KEVIN Leatham admitted that Weymouth & Portland suffered a bad day at the office during their first defeat of the season at East Dorset.

The newly-named Monmouth Avenue outfit were hit with as many as five withdrawals from the squad that sealed derby spoils over Dorchester Seconds in Dorset & Wilts Two South a week previously, but captain Leatham fails to see that as an excuse for his side’s lacklustre display on this occasion.

He told Echosport: “Unfortunately we lost five players from the squad that beat Dorchester, but in saying that, the guys we took were more than capable of beating them, we just didn’t play particularly well on the day.

“There were too many handling errors, especially out wide, and a couple of errors in defence. It was a good game but they just had us on the day.

“When we had our breaks we just dropped the ball out wide and we need to be more clinical than that. There were no excuses really, we just didn’t really perform on the day, and we could have done better.”

Second row Leatham, pictured, praised flanker Jack Morrison’s work-rate as well as full-back Steve Nation-Grainger, who was faultless under the high ball throughout.

And the skipper expects victors East Dorset, who are unbeaten in the division so far, to be well in the shake up for league honours at the end of the campaign.

“It was very physical over there and we knew it would be,” he added.

“They have quite a small pitch and they were used to it. We are used to a much bigger pitch to play much more expansive rugby.

“I think any team in this league will find it hard to beat them at their place that’s for sure, they will be up there in the top three.”