Nailsea & Backwell RFC

In the history of the RFU Leagues, Nailsea & Backwell had never beaten Clevedon at first team level, until last Saturday.

A bumper crowd and a full blooded start by both sides saw a scoring stalemate for the majority of the first half. Clevedon’s forwards fronted up physically but made handling errors and Nailsea’s line out creaked and struggled to get continuity, meaning that it was anyone’s game heading to half time.

The penalties at the breakdown appeared to play a large role in the territory as both sides competed hard at the ruck.

It was Nailsea’s backs that broke the deadlock as slick hands from a scrum saw Charlie Bircham-Davies collect his third try of the season. Vice captain Alex Jones added the extras as the half time whistle blew.

The second half started with Seasiders Captain, Brian Largenton, winning a turnover and from the resulting pressure and several phases of attack the Seasiders won a penalty with Nailsea's Evan Wall sent to the sin bin for 10mins for a breakdown offence.

From the penalty, Nailsea were caught napping as Largenton tapped and went scoring Clevedon’s opening try, as Nailsea looked at the referee for clarity on the yellow card. Ali Balcombe converted and the resulting protests from Nailsea on the legality of the tap and go saw Charlie Bircham-Davies also receive a yellow card.

Down to 13 playeres, the Ravens had to address their discipline and dig deep. They did just that! With Jamie Sullivan controlling the game, Clevedon failed to capitalise on their two man advantage.

A Ryan Barrow turnover saw a well set maul and Charlie Cox steered it to the try line from nearly 20m out. The Nailsea backs desperate to get in on the act, started to get plenty of breaks out wide and after another scrum move, Centre Joey Collins was expertly put into the gap by Man of the Match Adam Grafton to go under the posts. 7-19 with Jones’ conversion.

The Ravens finally started getting some pace on the game and after another break out wide, Full Back Joe Reed hit the ball at pace and scored for the bonus point.

To complete a historic day for the Ravens, the Second team contest between Clevedon and Nailsea was also edged by Nailsea 15-3 with tries from Craig Bessant and Lewis Hoon continuing his scoring run. James Warren adding a conversion and a penalty.

Next week the Ravens play Cheltenham North at home with a 3pm kick off. All support is much welcomed.

Try scorer Joe Collins; Vice Captain, Alex Jones; and Man of the Match, Adam Grafton.

Article credit - Tony Hill.