“Weston too strong for fellow strugglers in basement battle”

Both sides have experienced inauspicious starts to the season and Chard, following their positive performance of last week against Brixham, arrived with high hopes of narrowing the gap at the bottom of the table. Weston received bad news when inspirational captain George Sparks was unable to play…not a good start to the day but that was as bad as it got!

The Seasiders were ahead within half a minute. The kick off chase was good. Chard were forced into a hurried maul near their own line and centre Lawton had his clearing kick charged down by flanker Eaton, who gratefully touched down beyond the tryline. Young converted. 7-0 and the crowd still making the way to their seats.

The lead was doubled five minutes later when Morrissey went over following good support play and interpassing for the first of his brace, fittingly in his 65th. appearance, for Young to add the extras.

It had become obvious in the early stages that the visitors were going to struggle in the set pieces, and after sixteen minutes, from a Chard scrummage, Weston eased their opponents over their own line for scrum half Tuttiett to score an opportunist try…this time unconverted but nevertheless a healthy lead.

Chard came back into the game. On a rare visit to opposition territory they put together a series of driving mauls for prop forward Aplin to force his way over from a couple of yards. Lawton converted. 19-7 with half time approaching, but there was still time for Weston to respond. Centre Jones scored a splendid individual try from 40 metres, picking his way through the defence with barely a hand laid on him to bring up halftime at 24-7.

Ten minutes into the second half Morrissey scored his second from close range following another fine scrum when Chard were once again pushed off their own ball. Young converted and at 31-7, the game was all but won.

The visitors were finding it increasingly hard to gain any worthwhile possession or territory but they did spurn a consolation try opportunity when following a delicate grubber kick behind the home backs, Lawton was comfortably winning the race to touch down. The ball bounced invitingly over the line but the poor fellow knocked it on over the touch in goal line. Some days it’s just better to stay in bed!
Weston wrapped up the scoring after 72 minutes. Strong aggresive running from the forwards, with Streeter and Withers to the fore, had been splintering the Chard defence, creating space everywhere, and once again, the forwards, following Eatons’ good break, combined for second row Russell to score his first of the season.

The win was undoubtably down to the forwards, but there was a marked improvement in the home backs, with the Chard threequarter line rarely making inroads and the home defence perceptibly more organised.

There is no game next Saturday. The Somerset cup match against Bridgwater, due to be played has been switched to Saturday November 29th. The next match is away at Oxford Harlequins on Nov 15th.