After a pre-season which showed a great deal of promise, Nailsea & Backwell carried that form into the first league game of the season against old rivals Weston Seconds.
Showing early signs of dominance in the scrums and mauls, it took just over fifteen minutes for Nailsea Flanker Joe Murray to crash over from a well-executed five metre line out and maul. Weston responded by taking advantage of a Nailsea yellow card to take the lead by scoring a converted try and went further ahead, taking advantage of a second yellow card by moving the ball wide and outflanking Nailsea's depleted defence to make the half-time score 5-12.
In the first minute of the second half and with both sides at full strength, Nailsea Scrum-Half, Jamie Sullivan, pounced on a loose ball, hacked on and gathered to offload to Centre Alex Jones who danced his way to the line for a try. The try was converted by Jamie Elswood.
Nailsea then went further ahead when after a period of pressure on the Weston line. The Nailsea forwards once again drove over for Hooker and Captain Ryan Barrow to score. On the half-hour, Nailsea brought up the bonus point try from a well-rehearsed line-out move. Man of the Match Barrow taking a well timed pass from Dickie Palmer to go over un-challenged.
In the last minute, Murray produced a carbon copy of his first try, converted by Elswood to bring the final score to 29-12 to Nailsea.
This was an excellent start to the new season and Nailsea will take this form away to Yatton on Saturday 8th September.
