Somerset 2 South

Weston Athletic 13 Bridgwater & Albion 3rdXV 12

Weston Athletic finished the season on a high and leave Bridgwater & Albion's second team hoping for promotion.

The Athletic’s season finished with a home match on the warmest day of the year against Bridgwater and Albion who comfortably beat the Athletic at the very first match of the season.

It is fair to say that Bridgwater have had a successful season and came to Weston confident that the win against the Athletic would give them the promotion that they were seeking.

The Athletic were more than up for that challenge and off the cuff remarks “the champagne is on ice” and “a few beers in Weston and then back home for the party” before the game provided the incentive and a ‘not at our expense’ attitude the Athletic needed.

The Athletic took the field with their usual mix of youth and experience with old stalwarts in the pack of Hill, Matthews, Wheatley, Fisher and Noszkay supported by the young backs of Trott, Burns, Hazzard and Prime.

The Athletic received a kick off and miscommunication on receipt immediately put the Athletic under pressure. Solid defending was not enough and confident Bridgwater went over wide to take the first points, 5 – 0 failing to collect the extras.

The restart was much the same with the Athletic defending doggedly yet being pushed back towards their own line. He next score came against the run of play, the Athletic pack on their own 5m line provide the platform for scrum half Trott.

Trott jinked elusively created space and was met by inspirational play from Burns who side stepping opened up the over confident Bridgwater backs.

Supported by his older brother Burns off loaded to M Burns who streaked between twenty twos to link with wing Hazzard. Hazzard the fourth pair of hands skipped out of a final tackle to round beneath the posts for a magnificently worked try. With Young collecting the extras the Athletic took the lead 7 – 5.

Bridgwater were soon back in command and with the first half closing the increasing pressure saw the Bridgwater hooker drive over from short range. The extras collected Bridgwater regained the lead 12 – 7.

Hill rang the changes at half time substituting himself for Hunt and Wheatley for Lavender and with injuries in the backs H Monelle moved to centre to see Fraser join the pack.

Weston took the restart and a knock on from Bridgwater saw a more stable scrum from Weston and for the first time the Bridgwater pack dominant in the first half appeared to be under pressure. A final change in the pack saw Fisher replaced by Grimes and Matthews moved into the second row. T

he Athletic were now enjoying themselves driving Bridgwater continually off their own ball and forcing errors from what had been the cornstone of their success.

The ever vocal Down played a storming game at No 6 disrupting Bridgwater’s play at every opportunity and as Weston kept their discipline the Bridgwater team’s frustration became ever more vocal. Weston’s continued pressure eventually resulted in penalty opportunity for Young to pull the score back to 12 – 10.

The Athletic collected the restart and built again with opportunities provided to the Weston backs to score who were now frustrated by our own errors, with the Bridgwater backs of little consequence. Clearly the home side had the impetus and as the final 5 minutes drew on Bridgwater conceded a final telling penalty within the range of Young.

Young converted to provide the one point lead and with Athletic heads held high all defended stoutly for the final minutes to win the game. This was a huge achievement against the senior club who left Weston prematurely than had been planned two hours previously with corks firmly in bottles.

Team

D Wheatley, G Hill (Captain), M Matthews, L Noszkay, A Fisher, M Down, E Monelle, H Monelle, O Trott, D Burns, C Young, D Hancock, D Prime, R Hazzard, M Burns. Reps used N Lavender, E Hunt, L Grimes, C Ford, Fraser, R Bishop, L Hancock