Chew Valley 17 Taunton Warriors 48

It was a drizzly afternoon, and the playing conditions were sticky underfoot and the ball brown as it was covered in mud.  However, Chew fielded the ball from the kick off and ran at the Warriors defence after some good recycles, and with just three minutes on the clock, Chew went in for an unconverted try and a 5-point lead.  The Warriors kicked off again and looked to repeat their movement at the start, but Ollie Schuster-Wood pulled off an outstanding tackle stopping the Chew attacker in his tracks and winning the Warriors the first scrum of the match.  From that scrum Chew were driven back 15 metres and the Warriors had earned a penalty.  The Warriors opted for the scrum and back went Chew again to within touching distance of the try line.  With the Chew defence in disarray Jo Atkins picked up the ball and crashed over for the first of the Warriors eight tries.  Ben Alvis converted, and the Warriors had a two-point lead.  The Warriors continued with their forward dominance with many good drives even when they made mistakes and gave away scrums, so was their scrum dominance that Chew never had clean ball and they generally had little chance to turn that possession into good attacks and generally kicked possession away.  The Warriors were always willing to run these kicks back at the opposition and on the 15-minute mark Ben Alvis from fullback joined the attack to score the Warriors second try of the game.  Just 5-minutes later and Jo went in for his second try of the afternoon.  Several good breaks had been made but the last pass going astray, however, with 34 minutes on the clock a good pass to Ollie Brown he outpaced the opposition for a try which Ben converted. Just one minute later, Tom Haughton-King reading the game exceptionally well intercepted a Chew pass and raced from the halfway line for the try which was converted giving the Warriors their fourth try of the afternoon and their try bonus point. With just two minutes of the half left, Sam Knott used his size and strength to go over for a try which Ben converted to give the Warriors a halftime lead of 5to 38-points.

With three minutes of the second half gone Tom Haughton-King finished off some good work by the forwards to score.  Ben seemed to put the conversion over with the Chew touch judge raising his flag however, the Taunton touch judge kept his down and as such the referee when spoken to at the end of the match said he did not allow the conversion.  Good possession and dominance allowed Ollie Schuster-Wood to go in for a well worked try. This was to be the last for the Warriors who had a number of opportunities but for the last pass or the wrong option.  This allowed Chew to score two more tries with twenty minutes of the game left.  The Warriors tightened up their defence and stopped Chew gaining their fourth and bonus point try and so finished the game with a win 17-points to 48.

Th next three games for the Warriors are all at home on the 2^nd, 9^th and 16^th of March. Whilst the 9^th has the Titans at home as well why not put the other two dates in your diary and come and get those very talented Warriors over the line for promotion.