Coles and McPate bid farewell

Regional 1 South West
Weston-super-Mare 12 Barnstaple 22
COLES' LAST HURRAH

Stalwart prop, former captain Sam Coles, and Kiwi centre Bradley McPate, Weston made a promising start in the pair's last game and the Seasiders' final game before being relegated to Regional 2 for next season, writes Chris Heath.

Bradley is returning to New Zealand later this month, but Weston are hopeful of resigning him for next season.

The forwards made several promising forays, but when Weston threw a speculative pass that was intercepted in the Barnstaple twenty-two, allowing scrum-half Ross Swales to gallop away for the opening try, which full-back Tyler Gordon-Oke converted.

Weston then applied pressure at the scrum to earn a penalty, which kicked into the strong breeze. Barnstaple knocked on from the lineout, but despite Weston battering the visitors line, they eventually gave away a soft penalty, which was booted sixty meters down the pitch.

From the following line out, Barnstaple ended up in the far-right corner with a deft chip. However, the home defence held. The game meandered in the wind until the hosts were penalised for blocking in midfield.

The ensuing kick was retrieved by the visitors, who went on a lung-busting maul, which ended with them taking a quick tap from another penalty, but the hosts again held out by forcing a knock-on.

The relief was short-lived, as Weston was again penalised. A repeat kick to the right corner ended with Weston thwarting yet another drive. Barnstaple then helped Weston by back-chatting to the referee, who presented the hosts with a relieving kick.

Weston then scored a superb try when a run by hooker Gary Carpenter and drive by Kiwi flanker Jay Davis led to fly-half George Nuttycombe releasing right wing Joe Burgess, who stood his opponent up before going round the outside to dive to score in the corner.

Nuttycombe hit the post with the conversion attempt. Weston, however, kept on getting on the wrong side of the referee for various reasons, some obvious, others not so. No further score was added, and the half-time whistle was blown with the visitors leading 7-5.

With the wind at their backs, Weston began the second half on the attack, and the visitor's fly-half, Jordan Petherbridge, was given a yellow card. Weston elected to scrum near the visitors' line, and their persistent battering led to Carpenter powering his way over.

That gave Weston the lead for the first time, and Nuttycombe provided the extras. Weston were then penalised for offside, but after a missed kick to touch, Nuttycombe was unfortunate to see his clearance kick go dead at the other end.

This resulted in a Barnstaple scrum, and Weston infringed again. Barum piled on the pressure to score a well-taken try by Swales wide out on the right. Once again, Weston got to the visitors' line but lost the ball in contact.

They then gave away a stupid penalty, which ended with full-back Chris Young receiving a yellow card. A fantastic clearance kick by replacement hooker Josh Mynett led to the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

But Barnstaple had their tails up, and only desperate defence kept them out. Barnstaple then looked to have scored but were held up over the line. All that pressure eventually paid off, and replacement Cameron Johnson scored wide out on the left to give them a five-point lead.

With ten minutes still to play, Young was given a second yellow for we know not what, and Barnstaple took advantage by capitalising on a now-tiring defence for hooker Nat Bayet to score their bonus point try.

Weston then looked to have snuck over the line, but the referee was unsighted, and a try was not awarded, much to the chagrin of the large home crowd. The visitors won, but Weston can take heart from their performance.

The victory sees Barnstaple finish the season in second place, six points behind champions Devonport Services, while Weston ended their campaign at the foot of the table with four wins from 22 outings.