BARFC 2nd XV V’s Bristol Imperial 1st XV 19-34

Saturday 9^th December

BARFC 2^nd XV V’s Bristol Imperial 1^st XV

19-34

1. Jerry Philips
2. Dave Norman
3. Brett Shaw
4. Ali Blundell
5. Simon Buck
6. Shaun Mahoney
7. Sam Lee
8. Joe Bussell©
9. Doug Caddick
10. Will Kerry
11. James Brakes

12. Callum Gillard
    13. Oscar Treganna
    14. Louies Sinclare
    15. Dan Page

Subs

16. Jack Longman
17. Ewan Trebble-westlake
18. Tim Challacombe

For the 2^nd week in a row the united XV were runners up in a fiercely fought contest against a team with a much greater standing in the league. Bridgwater arrived to warm up with a bare 14 confirmed after losing skipper Dan Lang and veteran hooker Gavin knight to the 1^stXV late Friday night, fortunately the 2^nd XV were bolstered before kicking off by several of the Dirt trackers XV who willingly stepped up to fill the voids as their fixture was cancelled.

In a nice change of form for Bridgwater the opening points went to the home side after 10 minutes nearly quarter of the game had passed with both team fighting for ascendancy and Bridgwater managing to hold their line under a torrent of attacks by the visitors. The dead lock was broke when full back for the day Dan Page squirrelled over the line near the posts after feeding off a strong run by inside centre Callum Gillard following the good platform laid by the BARFC lineout. The kick was converted by Dan, 7-0.

Shortly after Imperial redoubled their efforts to attack the Albion line and put pressure on constantly in defence making Bridgwater play out from the 22m line and forcing error after error, putting the United XV under the cosh and eventually on the 15minute mark gifting Imperial their first taste of blood. This was to be repeated 10 minutes later again, after going back and forth for field position some sloppy tackles let the aggressors gain massive meters and eventually score out wide from a driving lineout. 12-7

Albion responded neatly not long after, by turning the ball over in their own half and gaining a penalty Bridgwater were able to relieve some pressure with a clearance kick down field, the newly energised home team then set about a series of crash ball options up the middle, again drawing a penalty from ruck offenses. Simon Buck noticed a napping defence and took a quick tap and surged down the middle of the field reaching the opposition 22m line where he was bought down, a quick ruck saw Gillard try his luck down the blindside before being stopped, a crash line back down the middle of the field dragged in the defence eventually creating room on the outside for James “Forrest” Brakes to dart up the left wing untouched and score the 2^nd home try. 12-12

Before the half was done imperial would resurge and score under the posts, following a botched lineout by Albion playing out from their own 5-meter line the ball ended up in imperial hands who were initially held off the line by valiant defence before the ball was released to the imperial backline who barged over the line with 2 tacklers hanging on to put them ahead. 19-12

The first 25 minutes of the 2^nd half belonged to imperial, even with the heroic defence and strong running from Albion 2, tries were leaked from breakaway runners finishing off neatly in each instance with Bridgwater struggling to scramble quick enough to stop them. In this time, the match started to become a heated affair with punches, stamping and a barrage of verbal abuse being thrown around. It wasn’t long before the referee grew sick of the foul play and sin binned the away sides second row. This didn’t seem to ease matters but gave the Bristol side a renewed energy as they defended an onslaught of attack from the Somerset outfit giving away no points that the home side strived for.

With the game coming into its twilight you’d be forgiven in thinking the energy levels dropped, in fact each team seem to relish the game more as the clock died down as both sides marched the other up and down the pitch with both scoring another try for their efforts. For imperial with 9 minutes left another breakaway saw them score from slick hands and offloads. Bridgwater gained their last in a similar fashion, with offloads down the middle of the field Bridgwater scored in front of the club house after setting out 10 meters from their own line, Oscar Treganna secured the points with scintillating speed after the ball reached him 40 meters out after good hands from Simon Buck, Joe Bussell, Shaun Mahoney and James Brakes.

Again the boys are extremely disappointed to have not gotten that ever illusive win but the way in which they are developing week on week it can’t be much longer before real magic happens and the fight for survival on the Somerset Tribute Prem is on.

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Category: 2nd Previews / Reports -XV