Yatton 2nds 24, BARFC 2nds (14/12/13)

Bridgwater travelled to Yatton looking to avenge the narrow defeat suffered at home, earlier in the season. Bridgwater welcomed back Satchell after 6 weeks out following some dodgy driving and gave a debut to new recruit Foggy. Despite an injury to hooker Josh Sturdy and the very end of the warm up, Bridgwater started the stronger of the two teams and in full control for the first 20 minutes.

Playing down the slope and with the wind, Albion played the territory well and ran through several good phases. Following a break by Jon Hill the ball was moved on to Stradling who carried the ball up to the Yatton half before being tackled. The ball was then moved wide by Hill again, to Brakes who surged forwards to run in from outside the 22, to score out wide. Hill converted with an excellent kick.

Following a Yatton sin bin, the Bridgy pack pushed Yatton off of their own scrum in their own half, the ball was then moved down the blindside with Tim Hill giving the final pass to Barnett to sprint in for a great try. Jon Hill again converted. This proved to be Bridgy’s last score of the game, although at this point a win was looking like a strong possibility.

Yatton began to look after the ball much better and strong running from an experienced pack put Albion on the back foot. This in turn allowed several penalties, which Yatton used well to gain ground with kick’s to touch. Bridgy held up the first lineout drive, couldn’t repeat this a few minutes later when Yatton got their first of the afternoon.

A failure to deal with the restart effectively combined with more penalties, kept Yatton going forward, and it wasn’t long before another try was scored, again unconverted.

With Bridgwater unable to get their hands on the ball, it was only a matter of time before they conceded again, just before half time. Following the score Trunks was sin binned as the ref struggled to keep control of a hot tempered game. This left the score at 14 – 15 in Yatton’s favour at half time.

The second half was a scrappy affair with both sides infringing regularly, contributing to a stop/start game. Albion never really got out of their own half, but Yatton didn’t get anywhere near the try line either. The only scores were three penalties from Yatton.

Bridgwater will be very disappointed with this below par performance, several players did start with injuries and there was a spate of hamstring injuries in the second half which disrupted continuity, but in the end Bridgwater’s young side was beaten by a side with more worldly experience.

Team: Brakes, Barnett, Basson, Smith, Owens, J. Hill, T. Hill, Trunks, Walker, Ball, Fogginson, Satchell, Stradling (Capt), Lipscomb, Steward.
Reps: (All used) Lang, Burtenshaw, Sturdy.
Tries: Brakes, Barnett
Cons: J. Hill (2)

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