Weston-Super-Mare 2nd XV 7 Taunton Warriors 76

Weston kicked off and from the kick off gained possession which they dominated for the first ten minutes with their large pack. Eyes were slightly covered for the first scrum wondering how our young front row was going to manage against this older, larger and experienced front row.  We should have had more faith as our young twenty-year-olds in the front row not only held their own but completely out scrummed the Weston pack.  This forward confrontation was however for the first ten minutes in Weston’s favour but the ball did come back to the Warriors backs and Tom Houghton-King made a superb break from inside his own half to feed Jack Connor who with his jinking run scored the opening try.  Josh Guest converted and from the kick off the Warriors started to gain more possession and open up the Weston defence.  Luke Bralsford made a superb break and was able to hand on to Mike Jones for the score on the 21-minute mark. Just 6 minutes later and Connor Banks again opened up the Weston defence sold a dummy and passed inside for Wayne Sprangle to score the Warriors third.  Josh converted and so the Warriors had a 19-point lead.  With 40 minutes on the clock, and the half about to come to an end Jack Connor made one of his jinking, pacey breaks and just before the cover tackled him passed inside for the ever-present Broadie Scheach to score.  This received big applause as it was not only the fourth try and bonus point try but also the eve before his 19^thbirthday.  The second half brought on Mike Oladele to replace Mike Jonesand Ollie Gibbon to replace Charlie Way who was having a challenge with his hamstring.  Just 4 minutes into the second half and Ollie was adjudged tohave made a high tackle and had to spend 10 minutes in the bin.  This was where Weston managed to put some phases together and score their only try ofthe evening.  Just a minute later and Jo Atkins went in for a try which Josh converted.  When Brad Harding went in for a try on the 57-minute markit looked as though the front row union were taking over the game especially as Weston had changed their props twice to accommodate the Warriors frontrow.  Josh converted to move the score to Weston 7 Warriors 38.  This brought back Ollie Gibbon to play at outside half with Connor moving into scrumhalf meaning the Warriors were back to 15 players and with only his second touch of the ball Ollie made the break and completely outpaced the Weston defence.  As Josh had been replaced by Dan Carruthers, Connor took over the kicking duties and converted the try.  The Warriors wings do not just stay there waiting for the ball to come to them so it was no surprise when Jack filled in at the base of the maul on the left, passed to Oli Brown the other wing who scythed through the Weston defence before feeding Ben Fenton who fed Brad Harding the hooker, on the right wing to score his second of the evening which Connor converted.  Just two minutes later and Oli got his rewards for his endeavours by scoring a try of his own.  Connor Banks is a real example of a player who wants the ball and so within the blink of an eye he has picked the ball up, taken a tap penalty from his own twenty-two created space and taken the ball into the Weston half to feed Luke Bralsford who scored the try which Connor then converted.  Wayne Sprangle then scored his second of the evening before Ben Fenton finished off the try scoring on 75-minutes for Connor to convert.  The referee blew his whistle and ended the game.

There were twelve tries scored by 10 different players, Wayne Sprangle and Brad Harding scored two each.  The table for the league shows that after round 5 Taunton have amassed 331 points with only 44 against and puts them at the top by 1 point.  Whilst it is level 7 it shows so much potential by such a young squad who appreciate the support, they get from the more experienced players who deserve a lot of thanks.  A lot of these players were colts just two years ago and the club must if they want to preserve this foundation acknowledge and support our colts.  This team shows the value of our youth system.

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