Sherborne         26

Thos. Hardye       17

Tries:       Harry B (3), Ptolemy G

Cons:       Hector H (3)

The Junior Colts A XV continued their unbeaten start to the season with a hard-fought win over The Thomas Hardye School on The Upper on Wednesday. In atrocious weather, they showed real ambition, scoring four tries, and advancing to round 2 of the National Under 15 Cup.

Sherborne got off to a tremendous start: barely had the whistle sounded for kick-off before Harry B was scoring under the posts and he was at it again, just minutes later, as JP T's arcing break opened up a second scoring opportunity. Hector H's two conversions meant that the scoreboard read 14-0 with just five minutes played. Our visitors now awoke from their slumbers, scoring a nicely-taken try from deep, as the half took on an increasingly attritional and error-strewn feel. The home backs posed a constant threat, whether from the power of Hector, or the quick feet of Freddie L and Will J, but the driving rain was making handling ever harder for both teams. Meanwhile, Jamie H, Fin G, Archie E, Nathan A and Hugh F put themselves about to good effect up front, but without any addition to the score before the interval.

The second period saw a similar story to the first as two more Sherborne tries snuffed out any chance of a comeback from the away side. First, Ptolemy G sliced through to score by the posts, before Harry completed his hat-trick, courtesy of another outside break from JP. All the while, Hector posed a constant threat as he punched huge holes in the Hardye's defence, whilst the pack continued to dominate the contact area. Two late tries provided some consolation for the Dorchester side but came too late to impact the result.

So, the boys in blue march on - albeit in rather bedraggled fashion - to face Millfield at home on Saturday. Do join us if you can.

HFT