Sat. 7th Dec. Southern Counties South Frome 1st 15 Swanage & Wareham 12
Frome RFC welcomed Swanage & Wareham RFC to ‘the Lane’ on Saturday in front of a large crowd of supporters and ex-players who were attending the annual reunion dinner. The side were also joined by players from the U9s as they ran out.
The visitors came to Frome on the back of a huge win against Devizes RFC, so the home side were expecting a hard battle.
Frome started strongly and after multiple penalties in the opening minutes, the visitors lost a man to the Sin Bin. Frome took advantage when captain and scrum half, John Benstead, crashed over from close range for a try, which was duly converted by full back Darrell Thompson.
Frome continued to dominate with the forwards carrying hard, led by prop Elliott Bowler and flanker Ryan Lech, but stout defence kept them at bay. Swanage & Wareham then broke through and scored in the corner despite desperate defence with Michael Duppa-Miller putting in some great hits to leave the half time score at 7-5 to Frome.
Frome started strongly in the second half and extended their lead when, from a scrum, the backs ran a move straight from the training field to see Darrell Thompson burst through and then beat the full back to score a well crafted try.
Frome moved further ahead when, with a penalty advantage, man of the match Simon Westlake slotted a drop goal.
Swanage & Wareham continued to threaten and gained some momentum and with 5 mins left, scored a converted try to bring the scores to 15-12. However Frome managed to see the last minute out to secure a hard-fought win and retain second place.
Head coach Toby Culff commented, “I love playing against Swanage & Wareham. They understand the set piece, they carry hard, they compete at the breakdown, they tackle fiercely, and they moan like hell. Men after my own heart. Maybe they’re not quite the force they used to be, but they’re still a tough nut to crack, and we had to dig deep to win this one.
“We played with decent shape and good sense for the first 60 minutes, and we were relatively comfortable. When we lost our heads in the last 20 minutes, however, our shape went too, and the game turned into a scrap. It was nerve-wracking, but the win should give the team an important boost before a tricky away fixture next week at Swindon.
“It’s a difficult challenge with which to end 2019 and the outcome will go a long way in determining what our 2020 will look like. If the players perform with the same character and courage, but with a little more composure, we’ll be in with a really good chance.”
Frome sit in 2nd spot of Southern Counties South, just 3pts off 1st place Grove.
On Saturday 14th December they travel to 4th place Swindon in the last game before the Christmas break.
