Regional 1 South West

Weston-super-Mare 31 St Austell 33

Report by Chris Heath

Weston-super-Mare came agonisingly close to securing their second Regional 1 South West league victory of the season in the first-ever match against visitors St Austell but instead had to settle for a losing bonus point.

The game couldn't have started any better when Weston No.8 Jay Davis stole a line out and sprinted forty metres to open the scoring. Fly-half George Nuttycombe converted and then added a penalty a few minutes later.

The visitors hit back in the eleventh minute when a loose pass was kicked on and a scramble over the host's line led to a soft try for No.8 Kyle Marriott being conceded under the sticks making the conversion for fly-half Chris Ashwin a formality.

Straight from the restart, the Weston hooker Josh Mynett earned a penalty which Weston took quickly, but this came to nothing. Luckily the Saints had infringed again, hooker Peter Harris was yellow-carded, and Nuttycombe added a further three points.

Weston then scored another try within the first twenty minutes when Mynett intercepted to race 20 metres down the touchline to score, which Nuttycombe converted with a fine effort.

It wasn't long before the visitors hit back when they kicked a softly conceded penalty to the corner and reeled around the resulting line out for openside flanker Cam Taylor to touchdown.

Weston then went on the attack once more with Kiwi centre Brad McPate very much to the fore, and an illegal crossing right by the opposition line prevented the hosts from increasing their lead.With Weston unable to capitalise on some excellent play, St Austell then had their best period of possession, and it ended with them scoring wide out through wing Max Bullen, which Ashwin converted.

So Weston only led by a point despite their hard work, and only another penalty given away by the visitors saw another Nuttycombe penalty to give Weston a 23-19 lead at halftime.

The second half began with another tremendous run by Davis, which unfortunately came to nothing. When skipper Tom Sugg was yellow-carded in the fiftieth minute, it looked like Weston would struggle to keep up their momentum.

This was further advanced when, with Sugg in the bin, St Austell piled the pressure on and took the lead for the first time with a try from replacement Rhys Daniel, converted by Ashwin.

Weston then replaced wing Hayden Main with Huw Morgan, who went into the centre, with Dominic Marshall relocating to the wing. With the captain back on the pitch Weston equalised with another Nuttycombe penalty.

But with eight minutes to go an up and under by the visitors ended with their speedy Daniel sprinting away to score another try, converted by Ashwing, to put them seven points clear.

Weston were not done and the rejigged back line benefitted from more great work by Davis before fullback Chris Young put Marshall away for a great try in the corner.

Nuttycombe, who had been in great kicking form all day, could not quite manage the conversion from wide out, and despite a few scares, the visitors held out for a two-point victory.

Weston-super-Mare were due to play in the opening round of the Webb Ellis Somerset Cup on Saturday (November 25) but have been awarded a ‘Walk Over’ through to the last eight after visitors Burnham-on-Sea conceded the game.

Weston-super-Mare scorers – tries: Jay Davis, Josh Mynett, Dom Marshall; cons: George Nuttycombe (2); pens: George Nuttycombe (4); yellow card: Tom Sugg (50 min)
St Austell scorers – tries: Kyle Marriott, Cam Taylor, Max Bullen, Rhys Daniel (2); cons: Chris Ashwin (4); yellow card: Peter Harris (13 min)

Match photos HERE