Last gasp win for Weston

Weston escaped from an embarassing home defeat with an injury time try from George Wright, converted from the touchline by James Mackay to pilfer a one point victory which was hardly deserved.

The first half was a tale of two kickers, with Mackay slotting two penalties for the hosts, and Wearne kicking three for the visitors to lead narrowly by 9-6 at half time.

The Barnstaple supporters must have been pinching themselves. They were outgunned in the set piece. Their front row was unable to stay bound ( when will referees start to penalise this transgression?) and Weston dominated territorially but wasted overlaps, poor kicking for position and missed touches wasted their possession.

The visitors had a lively set of backs who thrived on running back loose ball , and were unlucky not to score when their left winger was allowed to tiptoe down the touchline through a couple of pathetic tackle attempts, only to be thwarted at the corner flag.

Mackay kicked two penalties in the first two minutes of the second half as Weston continued to press. Wearne replied with one for 12-12 and after 50 minutes, the only scoring had been from kicks….not a good advert for the game on such a beautiful day, and on perfect pitch made for running rugby.

Westons’ Steve Thompson broke the deadlock after 52 minutes with an interception to touch down his first senior try under the posts for a simple conversion for Mackay, who added his fifth penalty on the hour to push the home side out to a more comfortable 22-12 lead.
This should have enabled them to put the game to bed, but it was not to be.

They took their foot off the pedal, Barnstaple retrenched and on a rare foray into Weston territory, home winger Sprague was yellow carded.
This was to prove extremely costly. From the resultant penalty and a simple back movement, centre Tukuharaina was ushered untouched through the centre and over the line for a seven pointer.

Worse was to follow. On 69 minutes, visiting scrum half Webber, a refugee from last years Old Pats, broke directly from a scrum, found no opposition tacklers, chipped over the full back, got the requisite bounce and touched down for another seven points.

Four minutes into Spragues’ yellow card and Barnstaple had scored 14 points to take a 22-26 lead. This was reduced on 73 minutes with Mackays’ sixth penalty, but Barnstaple, now brimming with confidence and commitment, continued to feed their backline at every opportunity and on 78 minutes, swift passing freed up full back Espin for a corner try which Wearne was critically unable to improve upon. 25 -31 with full time approaching.

Weston were awarded a penalty on half way. Wright took a quick tap and made 25 metres. The visitors infringed at the breakdown and from another tapped penalty and ruck, Mackays’ long pass found Wright on the wing for a free run in, and the fly half maintained his perfect kicking record with his eighth success as he nervelessly slotted the conversion from the touchline to break the Barnstaple hearts, and silence the “Barum” chant. Lucky lucky Weston.

Team…A.Gregory, P.Sprague, K.Middlemiss, C.Young, S.Thompson, J.Mackay, J.Conway (R.Bennett 60), D.Price, D.Burge, S.Williams (S.Doneghan 60), A.Richards
A.Glen (K.Hobbs 63) G.Simpson, G.Wright, G.Sparks.

Match report courtesy of Tony Russell, and photos by Andrew Collins.