B&A RFC 17, Oldfield Old Boys 13 (09/02/13)

This narrow win for Bridgwater took the home side two places up the table and out of the relegation zone.

Bridgwater dominated much of the territory and should, perhaps, have scored more than three tries. One of their failings was to play expansive rugby too near their own defensive zone. 

The home side gave league debuts to two new wingers, Joel Clark – who looked very lively throughout the game and Arg Saliarelis, a Greek international player. However, they lost Ollie Dunn to injury during the warm up with Gav Knight taking his place on the bench. 

Bridgwater dominated the opening and veteran hooker Matt Hastie opened the scoring with a try following good work by Clark, Saliarelis and Nick Francis. Ashley Honeywell converted. 

On their first visit to the home 22, Oldfield scored a good try through Josh Felix. Rob Payne narrowly missed the conversion but was successful with a penalty minutes later.

Bridgwater continued to dominate and after a series of penalty kicks, Simon Martin’s intelligent cross kick reached the unmarked Clark, but he knocked on in the act of touching down. 

Oldfield worked their way back on attack and were rewarded with an unconverted try for prop, Richard Stainer and a somewhat fortunate 7-13 half time lead.  

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The second half started with a yellow card for visiting centre, Alex Carlton-Porter but Bridgwater could not capitalise on their numerical advantage.

Bridgwater dominated the half territorially and narrowed the gap mid way through the session with an unconverted try for player-coach, Simon Martin after good work by Saliarelis and Francis again.  

The winning try came after 27 minutes. Clark caught a weak clearing kick 25m out on the right-hand touch line. He slipped the ball to loose-head prop, James Bryant who joyously sprinted 20m to the corner as the Oldfield defence opened up like the Red Sea.

The game ended with uncontested scrums following an injury to an Oldfield prop.  

The new boys both acquitted themselves well, particularly in attack and showed promise for when the ground dries out. The scrums were very solid but the normally very reliable lineout simply did not work. The backs looked lively with ball in hand. Defensively, tackling was good, with Mitch Windsor looking strong. Ball retention was not always good with both sides winning many turnovers. However, much confidence will be gained from this vital win.  

Next week, Bridgwater travel to Thornbury hoping to avenge a home defeat earlier in the season. 

Scorers: 

Bridgwater & Albion 
Tries: Hastie, Martin, Bryant 
Con: Honeywell 

Oldfield Old Boys 
Tries: Felix, Stainer, 
Pen: Payne 

Bridgwater starting team: Nick Francis, Joel Clark, Rob Allen, Ashley Honeywell, Arg Saliarelis, Simon Martin, Dominik Griffin, James Bryant, Matt Hastie, Christian Preece, Dan Kemmish (Capt), Rob Thompson, Tom King, Mitch Windsor, Nick Spellissy. 
Replacements all used: Gavin Knight, Sam Russell, Will Kerry 

Referee: Roger Gilson (Somerset Referees)

Match report by Tony Pomeroy

Category: 1st XV News, Previews / Reports -XV