WEYMOUTH & PORTLAND 0

SWANAGE & WAREHAM 38

WEYMOUTH & Portland were blown away in the second half as Swanage & Wareham produced a comfortable 38-0 victory at Monmouth Avenue.

Rich Bament’s Seahorses are finding the margins between success and failure finer than in their title-winning season of 2022/23.

The step up in standard has seen their errors punished more readily and the same was true in their latest Counties One Tribute Southern South clash against the Swans.

In gusty conditions, James Baker missed two penalties, while his Swanage counterpart Steve Woolley also sent a wayward kick at goal in a rare scoreless first half.

READ MORE: Corsham 28-27 Weymouth & Portland - report

It was a different story in the second half as Swans had the wind behind them and needed only two minutes to score as wing forward Kirk Jones powered his way over the try line.

Five minutes later, a kick was gathered by Swans’ full-back George Crouch who from his own 22 evaded several tackles by Weymouth defenders to score a fine individual try under the posts.

After Woolley’s conversion for 12-0, Swans continued to press the Weymouth line and a maul on the hosts' line after 53 minutes led to prop forward Anthony Crouch steaming over for a converted try.

Just after the hour mark, a loose ball came out to winger Sam Bowen, who sped down the left wing from the halfway line to score Swans’ bonus-point converted try under the posts for 26-0.

Weymouth rued basic handling errors in a ten-minute spell in Swans’ half as the visitors gave away a few penalties.

Knock-ons and Swanage’s proficiency at the breakdown proved their undoing as the Swans' defence was more than adequate enough to keep the Seahorses at bay.

After 70 minutes, Swans kicked clear and a move to Bowen had him racing in for an unconverted try in the corner.

As time was running out, another penalty took Swans back into the home 22 and centre Ed Dimascio worked his way over the line for the sixth try.

Woolley’s conversion was the final scoring action as Weymouth & Portland slipped to a fifth straight defeat.

Bament told Echosport: “It was a typical game of two halves, to be honest.

“We missed a couple of chances with penalties, I’m a bit gutted because I’d expect James to get them.

“And we didn’t convert our pressure. In the second half we kind of pressed the self-destruct button.

“It happens when teams have a complete off day. It wasn’t the cohesion we’re used to.

"We seemed to be off a different page of the book in trying things we’ve never done before.

“We talked before the game that we need to stick together and stick to the game plan. Unfortunately, it all went completely wrong.”

Weymouth & Portland travel to arch-rivals Dorchester on Saturday for the ‘Ridgeway Rumble’.