The merger has taken place with help from Dorset & Wilts Secretary, Gerald Burden, and has been signed off in a Zoom meeting by RFU Governance.

East Dorset was originally called Old Portcastrains, having gone open from being an old boys’ team from the former Portchester School in Bournemouth. Dorset Dockers was a club formed from a team called Space Dockers, born out of the Bournemouth Sevens.

Based in Iford Lane, Bournemouth, the new combined club aims to grow mini and junior rugby and the girls’ and women’s game, as well as fielding competitive men’s teams.

The Dockers were playing on Christhurch Rec only a mile away from their new home, with no clubhouse but were playing a level above East Dorset, so both clubs benefit from combining.

Stu Wilson, Vice Chairman explains: “Having both set ups in small area made little sense. Morgan Leadbitter, our chairman, had played for both and pushed the idea of a merger for mutual benefit. The Dockers are an excellent team, their President is James Cook OBE, the RFU Council Army representative.

“The hope now is to establish a first team in Southern Counties rugby, with a decent second team, and to rebuild the clubhouse in five years’ time, while restarting mini and youth rugby to join our Colts and pushing the development of our women’s team.”

Coaches Chris Culleton and Steve Clement and women’s team captain Morgan Edwards are intent on getting players fit for when XV-a-side rugby restarts by when they hope to have attracted new sponsors and designed smart new East Dorset Dockers shirts.