Minety Rugby Club are ringing the changes (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Minety Rugby Club are ringing the changes

MINETY RFC are ringing the changes this season with new captains and vice-captains for the two senior teams along with a new chairman and president.

Veteran hooker Dave Peirce takes over from Charlie Gawthropp as club captain, supported at first team vice-captain by experienced campaigner Will Howse.

Captaincy of the second team, meanwhile, has been taken on by winger Matt Burgess, supported at vice-captain by lock James Hazell.

Following the retirement of Keith Hodgson, former chairman Richard Pickford becomes club president while the chairmanship is taken over by fixture secretary and second team centre Mark Turner.

In a disappointing start to their league campaign on Saturday, Minety played poorly and were duly defeated 24-5 by their sprightly North Dorset visitors.

The result was made worse by a serious injury to Minety centre Gareth Dyer who was stretchered off with a dislocated elbow.

The visitors opened their account with a penalty goal after 15 minutes and immediately added another as the referee penalised a late tackle.

Both sides squandered chances to score until the visitors caught and ran back a Minety clearance kick just before half-time.

Linking well, North Dorset fed the ball to lock Andy Coles who ran in a try to extend his side's lead to 11 points.

Coles scored again soon after the restart, bursting through the initial cover before touching down under the posts to give an easy conversion.

Minety briefly got back into the game, setting up a maul and driving scrum-half Andy Brown over for a try.

However, it was during a subsequent Minety attack that Dyer was injured.

On as a replacement, Dyer had been an influential contributor to his team's recovery and, after his departure, Minety failed to threaten again.

Both sides had a player sin-binned during the final 20 minutes, but North Dorset added two more penalty goals and ended clear winners.

Minety must now pick themselves up for this Saturday's game when they take on Calne in the first round of the Junior Vase.