Nailsea & Backwell II's 36 Imperial II's 12
On a bright sunny Pink Ladies day at the Nest both teams were welcomed onto the field by the junior girls guard of honour.
N&B kicked off and when Imperial knocked on, the ever willing Lewis Appleby broke away down the blindside before offloading to Matt Thorn who ran in to open the scoring. Sam Bigley adding the extras.
The next 20 minutes were stalemate with each a team attacking hard at each other but both defences held strong. Finally after a few strong phases Imperial themselves crashed over in the corner. N&B then took control again with the only other score of the first half. From a secured scrum Ben Cleave found Liam Harris who tipped on to Matt Stone whose line and pace allowed him to crash in from 25m. At half time the home team held a 12-5 advantage.
The third quarter was again stalemate with both Teams attacking at every chance but again both defences stood strong.
N&B then added to their score when out of nowhere the ball was moved up the blindside allowing Matt Thorn to run in from 30m. Bigley again adding the extras. Imperial still would not lie down and again breached the defence to score a converted try close in.
However N&B hit back almost immediately when the forwards secured ball. Harris was able to kick through for Bigley to outpace the defence to dot down. With ten minutes to go the game was still for the taking until Imperial gave away a penalty in the scoring zone. From Harris’s kick towards touch Adam Weavers pace allowed him to take the ball from the waiting defence to run in almost unopposed as the Imps players were expecting the kick to have made touch. Bigley again adding the extras. So into the final minutes and N&B, who battled all game, strung several forward moves before finally breaking blind for Bigley again to go over for a 36-12 Win.
Both teams played with high intensity and defence was hard and fierce throughout. This was a good hard contest with both teams leaving nothing on the pitch in front of a large Pink Ladies day crowd.
Special mention goes to youngsters Morris, Hay, Man of the Match Cleave and especially Delazzari on his Senior debut, but they were supported by all squad members in a superb display to remain top of Somerset 3 North.
