Sidmouth Under-14s were 7-5 winners when they made a long distance sojourn into new territory last Sunday to take on Dorset’s County Champions Dorchester, writes Craig Morgan.

A crop of huge and mature looking players lined up against the Chiefs and concerns amongst the travelling supporters were duly raised!

The laws of physics clearly state that ‘A good big’ un always beats a good little un’, and, from the kick-off, Dorchester quite literally steam rollered their way through six phases and dotted down before Sidmouth had even touched the ball, a full two minutes into the game! However, the Sidmouth boys had a quick word with themselves and set about defending with more vigour. Through the rest of the first half Dorchester dominated play and came close on several occasions.

Heroic defence from Joe Elsworth, Jack Marchant, Oli Jones and Jake Jones along with good ‘exit strategies’ at critical moments allowed Sidmouth to relieve the pressure and initiated the occasional visit into Dorchester’s half.

With half-time nearing Mattie Laurenti made a great decision to go blind and passed to Fin Morgan who attacked the line. Just before getting crunched he supplied an inside pass to Joe Elsworth storming in on a great line. The big number-eight crashed over the line taking three defenders with him only to be harshly judged as dropping the ball and the try was disallowed.

Six substitutes were rotated into the action at half-time. The front row of Jack Marchant, Fin Jonson, Andrew Donovan and Jack Jenkins had endured a torrid physical battle in the first period, but came back hard at the hosts!

Sidmouth’s Man of the Match was undoubtedly Owen Tidball for ferociously tackling his opposite centre who must have been twice the Sidmouth youngsters size and he was also the home teams danger man!

As the half wore on Sidmouth had clearly weathered Dorchester’s storm and through some sublime kicking from Finlay Morgan they were able to establish good field position and strong counter attacks ensued.

From one of these, new recruit Kyle Parry broke free on the half way line and put the afterburners on. Still with three men to beat ‘Pazza’ deftly changed direction again and burned the defence to touch down under the posts.

The travelling crowd erupted and big Joe calmly slotted over for the game.

This is the second county champion side Sidmouth Under-14s have beaten this season and unquestionably confirms their effort to adopt a scintillating 15-man game. This was their best performance of the season and well done, to all who played.