National League 3 South West

Weston-super-Mare 3 pts Hornets 34 pts

In front of the biggest crowd for many years, Weston-super-Mare were put to the sword by a superb Hornets team which produced five tries without reply in the first-ever National League match between the two Clubs.

Weston were beaten in most departments. The set scrums were just about even, but the line-out and loose belonged to the visitors whose back division took maximum advantage.

Weston problems started in the first seconds when fly-half Iain Chisholm’s kick-off went straight into touch and by the seventh minute they were 10 points in arrears.

With Jermaine Jones’ penalty and conversion of prop Alec Chase’s try gave Hornets the early impetus as Weston prop Darren Crompton was yellow carded.

Weston had to wait until the 17th minute for any meaningful possession and Harry Jones and full-back Ross Bennett took play to the visitors’ line.

But Hornets defence was rock solid and on the half-hour, Francis took Letherby’s scoring pass on the burst, Jones’ conversion taking the score to 0-17.

Another line-out drive gave Chase is second try in the 40th minute and in time added Chisholm’s penalty took the interval score to 3-22.

Weston started the second half with centre Sylvan Edwards and No 8 Cronan Gleeson going close.

But by the 52nd minute they were defending desperately, but were unable to prevent the pushover try by flanker Rob Cheeseborough after Chisholm had been sent to the bin.

Jones’ third conversion followed and their final try was scored by the outstanding Letherby as Weston’s day ended when Harry Jones lost the ball over the visitors’ line.

Weston-super-Mare: R Bennett; E Maloney, H Jones, S Edwards, M Watkins; I Chisholm, H Tuttiett; D Crompton, C Withers, O Streeter, A Russell, A Glen, B Cox, G Sparks (capt), C Gleeson. Reps: M Walker, E Hunt, M Chisholm.

Weston-super-Mare scorer - pen: Iain Chisholm; yellow cards: Darren Crompton, Iain Chisholm.

Hornets: S Balkham; C Carter, R Dempsey (capt), A Francis, J Jones: J Letherby, S Disney; A Chase, C Francis, S Haines, C Harris, P Hogarth, R Cheeseborough, K Dillon, M Parker. Reps: S Kent, S Donegan, C Littlewood.

Hornets scorers - tries: Alec Chase (2), Adam Francis, Rob Cheeseborough, James Letherby; cons: Jermaine Jones (3); pen: Jermaine Jones