Regional 1 Tribute South West

Weston-super-Mare 22 Camborne 26

Weston narrowly beaten by league leaders.

Report by Chris Heath

Weston-super-Mare were more than a match for the table toppers, but Camborne proved why they are comfortably leading the division by being completely clinical when the chances arrived, leaving the hosts with a much-needed losing bonus point.

The sides were tied at 12 points apiece at half time, with the visitors' bonus point try not coming until five minutes from time, after which they were forced to defend stoutly until the final whistle sounded.

"There are lots of positives to take from the game, but I am more disappointed for the lads," Weston-super-Mare's head coach Darren Crompton told the Club's website.

"You can feel the hurt when you've played well, and the result hasn't gone your way. You could feel that hurt in the dressing room after the game.

'We've had a good talk; for us, it is onwards and upwards. We lost the last two games by two and now four points, so we are picking up bonus points.

"We are close to getting back to winning ways, and if we keep playing as we did against Camborne, then there would be no better time to get that victory than on Saturday at home to Chew Valley.

"They played very well when they beat us at their ground early in the season, but they have lost their last two games. We don't look at the league table because we prefer staying positive and returning to winning games."

The Seasiders started brightly and were ahead as early as the seventh minute when a strong scrum led to fly half James Mackay superbly delaying his pass enough for centre Huw Morgan to glide through a gap. Mackay adding the extras.

The Cornishmen retaliated with a try, which resulted in Weston being penalised for a high tackle. The ball was kicked to near the try line, and a basic catch and drive led to the unconverted try through hooker Ben Priddy.

Weston hit back straight away when a lovely Mackay chip into space led to a break by No.8 Ben Cox. The ball was recycled to Mackay, whose superb long cut-out pass to Kyran Devitt allowed the right wing to stand up his opposite number before scooting past on the outside to dive in the corner.

Camborne countered, and after some almost heroic defence, the visitors eventually levelled the score with a carbon copy of their opening effort from similar circumstances and a second Priddy try, converted by Aaron Simmonds.

Weston then spent the remainder of the half defending and learnt their lesson from Camborne's opening two scores by thwarting further attempts at crossing the home line.

The second half began with another Mackay chip through that resulted in a knock-on, and from the ensuing scrum, Weston were awarded a penalty which Mackay converted to put the hosts three points ahead.

Then in the fifty-third minute, with Camborne once again knocking on the Weston line, Devitt intercepted to race ninety metres to cross under the sticks for a relieving try converted by Mackay.

Camborne would not lie down and reduced the deficit to three points with a well-taken try, again through centre Nico De Battista to go in front for the first time in the game followed by their third catch-and-drive score from Priddy with Simmonds converting both.

This proved to be the winning moment of the game despite battering the visitors' line. In the last minutes, Weston could not get the try which would have given them a narrow victory.

On Saturday, Weston-super-Mare have a rearranged match against Chew Valley who have dropped to third in the table after their 43-27 defeat away to Brixham who are now second having one more game than Chew Valley. Kick-off 2pm.