Second half surge sees Seasiders home

Weston prevailed in a keenly contested match. The visitors made their intentions clear from the start and attacked with terrific energy. Weston's defence held secure and when they won the ball they spun it first to the left and then recycled the ball and Rich Johnson was on hand to finish a very exciting set of moves touching down to the right of the posts. James Mackay slotted the conversion and was soon lining up another kick as the visitors gave away a penalty. Weston were 10 points up with just 10 minutes gone and might have thought that this game was going the way of many this season.
However Newent renewed their efforts and forced a simple penalty and from the restart worked the ball through a number of phases always working their way further into Weston territory. Eventually their second row crashed over for a try at the posts and the conversion was made. After 20 minutes the game was all square and Weston were facing a tough battle to take control of the game. The whole team worked hard to retain possession and after a scintillating break by Weston fly half James MacKay they came close to scoring a try but settled for a simple penalty. Weston went close to scoring a couple of times in the closing minutes and we're happy to get another penalty on the stroke of half time which also saw the Newent open side sin binned for persistent infringement. The first 40 minutes had seen Weston struggle to capture their recent form and Newent certainly did not look like a side that had lost its previous 5 games. The first half closed with Weston just in front on 16-10.
Stirring words from Weston's coaches Crompton and Dickson brought a new look to the game and Weston attacked from the restart with a move out wide on the right and Robbie MacKay crossed for a try with less than a minute on the clock. His brother James was on hand to add the conversion and further Weston pressure from the restart saw MacKay senior slotting another penalty to move Weston clear at 26-10 with barely ten minutes of the half gone.
Weston were now much more on song and in a great move from recycled ball Morgan cut through the defence for Weston's third try, converted by the accurate MacKay, who also got another penalty and Weston looked as though they might run away with the game but all credit to Newent who never gave up. They kept driving at Weston and by committing more men at the ruck they moved into Weston territory and scored a good try in the right corner.
Weston came back at Newent and ran hard at their depleted defence following a yellow card for the Newent fly half. Dickson's surge in the middle brought him a well earned try and Weston might have thought it was all over with the score at 43-15.
The last seven minutes or so saw hectic end to end rugby with both sides running as hard and fast as they could. Newent scored their third try to bring their score to twenty and Weston could easily have scored another but eventually the ref blew for no-side and Weston had secured their 16th league win in succession and earned a bonus point. The other results in this league went with the form book and Weston remain 21 points clear of the nearest rivals.

Weston fly half James Mackay passed two hundred points for the season last week at Kingsbridge and added a further 20 points to his tally today. He has currently scored 231 points which is faster than any player since 2005