Tribute Somerset Premier

Weston United Chew Valley 2ndXV

Weston went into this game which was their last home fixture of the season with a lot of changes to their side due to injuries and unavailability, but they were still confident of securing the maximum points against a vocal Chew Valley side.

Things didn't start well for the home side when they lost fullback Matt Burns to a nasty looking mouth injury from a high tackle where the Chew winger decided to use his forearm to stop him. The winger was given a yellow card and on another day it may have been a different colour.

The resulting penalty was kicked to the corner and from the catch and drive it was Gavin Simpson who opened the scoring with George Chapman converting.

It was not long before Simpson was scoring his second of the match after a fine break down field by replacement back Harry Jones, the ball was quickly recycled for the number eight to score. Chapman again added the extras.

The Weston pack were now dominating the scrums and Chew kept giving away penalties as they struggled to cope with the power of the home forwards. 

The backs then ran the ball from their own line with Jones evading several Chew players before offloading to the supporting prop Jake Whatley who stormed down field, throwing dummies on his way to the try line.

He then looked to pass to the supporting Joe Pullen to finish things off, only for Pullen to be tackled without the ball when a certain try would have been scored. Weston should have been given a penalty try, instead they were just given a penalty and Chew were fortunate that they still had a full quota of players on the pitch.

With a penalty five metres out and a more than adequate pack, you would have thought Weston would have elected for a scrum. Bizarrely they didn't and Chapman kicked the three points and the home side went in at the break winning 17-0.

At the start of the second half Weston knocked on from the kick off, giving Chew possession and this allowed them to score out wide for their only points of the game.

Chapman kicked another penalty to allow the home side to increase their lead.

Weston then lost colt Sam Light to the sin bin for punching as they went in search of the four try bonus point. 

Around the hour mark captain Ollie Caton broke away from inside his own half, popped to the supporting Jones who then fed to fly half Loz Ware who threw a fine dummy to score in the corner.

Weston left it late to secure maximum points and they did so by scoring three tries in the last five minutes.

With a penalty advantage from a scrum, the versatile Dave Steele found himself out wide to score the fourth.

Straight from the restart Weston attacked with urgency and some slick hands by the back line put Caton away for a fine team try that Chapman converted.

Tom Wheatley then thought he had scored the try of the match only for this to be disallowed as the Chew touch judge said that winger Joe McGrath had stepped into touch.

The game was then rounded off by the hard working Joe Pullen who scored following a surging break by winger Benbobson Fondu and Chapman added the conversion.

Although this turned out to be a comfortable win, Weston need to pay some attention to detail as if truth be told they could have scored a further six tries.

Weston United scorers - tries: Gavin Simpson (2), Loz Ware, David Steele, Ollie Caton, Joe Pullen; cons: George Chapman (4); pens: George Chapman (2); yellow card Sam Light (57 min)