BARFC 2nd XV 10, Clevedon 2nd XV 22 (8/12/12)

Bridgwater welcomed high flying Clevedon to Bath Road, whilst their respective first teams were doing battle at Clevedon’s ground.

The game was started by Bridgwater and Clevedon immediately looked to attack with their powerful pack running some hard lines. Bridgwater defended hard, going low in tackles, but good offloads from Clevedon to their support runners allowed the try to be scored by the visitors. The conversion was missed.

This early setback spurred Bridgwater into action, and some good interplay between the forwards and backs earned some good possession and territory for the home side. Following a Clevedon infringement, Dan Steward slotted a relatively simple kick form in front of the posts to make the scores 10-3 to Clevedon.

Both sides had further chances to score in the remainder of the half, but poor hands from the Clevedon side combined with some excellent and powerful defence from the Bridgwater team prevented them crossing the whitewash. Bridgwater had plenty of possession but were unable to convert this into points.

The second half produced much of the same for both sides. Clevedon were the first to score following a series of good offloads, again the conversion was missed by the veteran scrum half.

Twenty minutes of further toing and froing resulted in no further points for either team, but with the scores at 15 -3 Bridgwater decided to go for the game, and played with great confidence, expansion and structure, and after several phases close to the Clevedon line, Burtenshaw threw an outrageous miss pass to put fellow colt Tim Hill away for a superb team try. Stewards kick bisected the posts perfectly to add the extras, making the score 15-10 to Clevedon.

With ten minutes left to play, the game was anyones. Again play went from end to end but Clevedon earned a lineout close to the Bridgwater 22, and slick hands put their centre away for a try just left of right of the posts. The conversion this time was successful, Making the final score 22-10 to Clevedon.

Bridgwater produced a much improved performance on recent weeks and were unlucky not to get a losing bonus. Olly Mcgowan looked very impressive on his senior debut, Sam Russell led the pack by example and James Kerry looked dangerous every time he had the ball in hand. Overall it was a strong team performance. The seconds are away next week against North Petherton seconds, and will look to carry the improvement from this game.

Team: Kerry, Rae, Owens, Stradling (Capt), Lang, Steward, Mcgowan, Saunders, Knight, Moulding, Burtenshaw, Buck, Sadler, Higginson, Russell.

Reps (all used): Hill, Walker, Polley

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