Bridgwater & Albion RFC 23- 31 Nailsea and Backwell – Match Report

Bridgwater & Albion RFC 23- 31 Nailsea and Backwell

Bridgwater and Albion RFC opened their 2024-25 Western Counties North campaign.  This was with a home fixture against Nailsea and Backwell on Saturday afternoon.

Two evenly balanced sides ensured a keenly contested match throughout.  Although the Albion created several opportunities they were unable to make them count.  It was Nailsea and Backwell who ran out the winners.

The visitors kicked off but after four minutes Jay Owens gave the Albion the lead when he slotted home a penalty. The lead was short lived.  Nailsea hit straight back with a try by Charlie Cox that was converted by Alex Jones.

The next 20 minutes of the half saw the hosts create a period of pressure and the majority of the play was in the Nailsea half. Several scoring chances were created but on each occasion they either failed to break through the strong Nailsea defence, or the final pass just failed to go to hand.

The deadlock was broken

In the end, it was Nailsea who broke the deadlock.  Scrum-half Joe Reed collected the ball in his own half and sprinted to the try line to score a try which Jones converted to double the lead.

Towards the end of the half an Owens penalty reduced the arrears but right on the whistle, Jones slotted one home for the visitors.  This made it 6-17 at the break.

Nailsea started strongly but after five minutes a great break by George Sluman resulted in the ball being worked across the backs.  Eventually Alex Knight crashed over for an unconverted try.

Immediate impact from Devitt from the offset

from Kyran Devitt came off the bench and had an immediate impact. The winger made a scything run from his own half before chipping ahead, collecting the ball and going over for a try to the left of the posts. This was again unconverted.

This brought the deficit to one point.  Sadly it wasn’t long before Nailsea extended their lead.  Prop Sam Cook scored a try in the right corner which Jones converted to make the score 16-24.

The visitors went further ahead when Ben Perfect went over for a try.  Jones converted leaving Albion needing more than two converted tries to win.

Nailsea player yellow carded

With a quarter of an hour remaining Nailsea found themselves down to 14 when they had a player yellow-carded. From the following passage of play, Bridgwater & Albion RFC crossed the line but the ball was held up.

Another darting run by the ever-dangerous Devitt resulted in Owens going over for a try.  The winger converted but shortly after, the whistle went.

The hosts will reflect on this game as one they could have toook their chances, kicked their penalties and converted their tries.  They could and should have won.

On Friday night the Albion travel to play at Chard where they kick off at 7.30pm.

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