Nailsea & Backwell II’S 41 - 10 St Bernadettes II's
This week N&B entertained St Bernadettes in a Somerset III North League game keen to get back to winning ways after recent defeat at League leaders Clevedon. St Bernadettes came with a much stronger squad than they had in the previous exchange and set up a thrilling encounter.
After the opening stalemate N&B finally gained territory and from a solid scrum, a training ground move was successfully carried out. Cory Love found Jamie Elswood whose strength allowed him to crash through the defence to canter in from 25m. Sam Bigley added the extras.
The game was then in stalemate again with both teams testing eachother out upfront and out wide. N&B again secured good scrum ball allowing the ball to be moved quickly through hands to Elswood whose perfectly timed pass found Harry Marshall who sprinted around the defence to score a second try. With the half nearly up, SBOB scored a try of their own where a chip over the top was successfully collected and grounded. This left the half time score at 12-5.
The second half saw N&B playing down the hill. N&B used this factor to gain ascendency and begin to turn the screw.
Ben Morris and Darren Chidzey dominated the line out, and Matt Stone at Number 8 and Jack Charman carried, tackled, and got over the gain line time and again. This gave the backs plenty of quick ball to use at their will. N&B then added to the score when the forwards won a series of rucks getting into the red zone. This allowed Scrum Half, Cory Love, to find his brother, Ryan Love, whose direct running line saw him crash over from short range. Bigley again adding the extras.
Shortly after, N&B struck again when from further forward pressure Cory Love broke blind finding Elswood, whose jinking run saw him beat the defence for his second try.
With 20 minutes to go N&B added a fifth try... Ryan Love ran a sublime line to add his second. Again, Bigley added the extras.
Then came a lapse in concentration from N&B With several infringements, SBOB added their second try. This only awoke N&B, and when Matt Stone went off the back of the scrum on one of his many runs, his offload to Bigley allowed him to dummy the Full Back and run in from 15m.
With the clock nearly up N&B continued to press. From a secured line-out, Cory Love broke blind feeding Jack McCormick whose sublime pass found Louis Wait to crash over the line. Final Score 41-10.
This was fifteen man rugby at its best and probably one of N&B’s best performances of the season. Man of the Match was Matt Stone who stepped from Centre to Number 8 and totally dominated throughout carrying strongly and linking backs and forwards.
