B&A RFC 2nd XV 5, Bristol Barbarians 72 (27/10/12)

The United welcomed high flying Bristol Barbarians to college way, on a sunny but windy day. Bridgwater’s team was a supplemented by two call ups from the Dirt trackers to enable a team to take the field, and despite this last minute uncertainty, started the stronger of the two teams.

The kick off was inefficiently dealt with by the barbs, enabling good field position to be secured, and a lineout deep in their opponents 22, allowed the forwards to secure the lineout and drive the ball towards the try line. Walker peeled off the back and deftly handled the ball inside to Innalls who was helped over the line by the rest of the pack to open the days scoring.

With Bridgwater looking competitive spirits were high, but in similar fashion to the previous week a try was conceded almost straight from the restart by the Bristol side. The first half then played out in a see-saw fashion, with Bridgwater having possession and some territory but failing to convert this into points. The Barbarians maximised their time on the ball scoring some good tries through a combination of missed tackles and great offloads and support running. The half time score was approximately 22- 5 to the Barbarians.

Half time saw a couple of changes in the Albion side, this had little impact on the game though as the Barbarians went through a period of scoring seemingly at will, with their whole team showing good pace and handling skills.

Bridgwater did have possession of the ball on numerous occasions especially with the scrum going extremely well and providing a good platform, however it was rare that more than two phases were completed thanks to some strong rucking from the travelling side.

The final score was 72 – 5 in the Barbarians favour. This was a fairly disjointed performance from the United team and they will defiantly be looking to improve on their cohesion for next week’s trip to Bath.

Team: Willis, Rae, Ryan, Lang, Clark, Owens, Steward D, Saunders, Prescott, Walker, Innalls, Taylor, Steward O, Windsor, Stradling (Capt)

Reps (all used): Moulding, Higginson, Moulding

Category: 2nd Previews / Reports -XV, 2nd XV News