Yatton III's 7 - Nailsea & Backwell II's 41
After a few weeks away from competitive rugby, N&B travelled to Yatton for this Somerset Division 3 North fixture.
On a chilly but bright and sunny afternoon N&B won the toss and elected to play down the hill which gave them the advantage. Early on N&B dominated up front and after five minutes forced a penalty infringement from Yatton. Following several forward surges Sean Marks crashed over to open the scoring.
Almost immediately N&B forced another Yatton error allowing Josh Collins to gather loose ball and smash his way through the defence for a 10-0 lead.
Shortly after, N&B secured a scrum on halfway giving Liam Harris time to kick deep and wide. This was collected by Adam Weavers on the burst who ran 30m but when tackled short his offload found Corey Dougal who finished the move for a third try.
With ten minutes of the half to go, N&B secured the bonus point try when from a secured scrum, the ball was moved wide to Weavers who sprinted in from halfway. Collins added the extras for a 22-0 halftime lead.
The third quarter was stalemate with Yatton upping the anti and forcing N&B errors. Yatton finally scored a try of their own when N&B spilled ball when close to scoring. The Yatton Inside Centre set off to score a length of the field converted try.
But N&B regained composure and finished the game strong with three further tries. Firstly, after several forward phases, N&B secured scrum ball allowing Ben Cleave to break away and when tackled the evergreen Darren Stone received the pass to crash over.
Next up it was the backs turn and when Adam Weavers cut a sharp line, Carl Broaders was in support to carry on the move offloading to Steve Gillard who crashed over from close in, converted by Collins.
The final try came from superb team work and when the ever willing Weavers cut through the defence Matt Thorn was in support to finish off the move and then added the extras for a well deserved 41-7 win.
Yatton, to their credit, never gave in making it a difficult afternoon for N&B who had to work hard for every point.
This weeks Man of the Match was Darren Stone on his first outing of the Season. His experience gelled the youngsters, but his tireless defence and support was at the forefront all afternoon.
