Nailsea Touch started their latest campaign in the apathy named Winter League as A&EOB were the opponents on a frozen, Monday night at Shaftsbury Park.
Nailsea's opening fixture saw a few debutants Steve Johnson, former-England captain, Bruce Kirby and Lineti Piutau all made their first competitive appearances.
Nailsea were set for a party atmosphere following their great campaign. Although they quickly realised that this was work and if they couldn't tell the difference between work and party then they were going to be in big trouble.
It was a tight opening exchange as both defences stepped up to the mark and restricted the attacks to no scores. Nailsea's high press really put pressure on the A&EOB, until they managed to breach the Nailsea backline.
Nailsea quickly equalised as a slick move and quickly hands had Anthea in space and get the ball over the line from the oncoming defence.
Despite competitive play and great drives, Nailsea let a tight game get away from them as some defence opening moves lead to A&EOB going 3-1 up, before an interception put them 4-1 up at the break.
The freeze seemed to hit harder in the second, despite the intensity of the game heating up! A&EOB scored another couple of well worked tries, but this did not dampen Nailsea's spirits.
Nailsea answered both scores straight from the resulting kick off as Ryan Anthoney and Steve Johnson slipped through some tight gaps to finish clinically.
Despite the 7-3 defeat, Nailsea can take great pride from how the performed and set down a marker for those they're playing the rest of the season.
Nailsea Touch will face Tigers this coming Monday at 7.05pm.
