A fantastic effort sees the Wanderers firmly top of the table

Taunton Wanderers 49 - Weston SM 0

The return home match should have turned out to be a bruising encounter given the closeness of the score earlier in the season when a bare 15 from the Wanderers travelled to Weston and came away with a bonus point loss with only 3 points separating the sides.

On the return leg Weston also appeared with a bare 15 but as it turned out unfortunately for them their ‘bare’ 15 were not nearly as up to the task. On a slightly heavy pitch Taunton quickly took control with the forwards making ground and the backs making good of the forwards work.

Line out and scrum dominance provided an excellent platform for the backs to make good ground and allow the forwards to provide excellent support. There was strength right across the line despite a new and untried centre partnership of Lloyd Cotton and Josh Durran.

As has been prominent for most of this season most of the Wanderers points came in the first half with two tries by Gav Farley, two tries from powerful forward play by James Tolman and an opportunistic try by Lloyd Cotton leaving the score 27-0 at half time. Unfortunately by now Weston were down to 14 due to injury with one player lucky not to be on the other side of the motorway.

The second half proved to be very much a repeat of the second. Weston lost yet another player to injury and thanks must go to Tom Stanley for stepping into the breach for Weston. In fact it could be said only with the introduction of Tom did Weston get any go forward momentum. Unfortunately Weston found it extremely difficult to cling on to any semblance of structure or momentum. In the end 9 tries and a couple of conversions sealed an emphatic 49-0 try bonus point win.

The match was cut short after 65 minutes at the request of the Weston captain. The result sees the Wanderers firmly cemented at the top of the table. Next week a tricky away trip to Minehead and that slope……………