Weston v Cleve

Weston welcomed Cleve to the Recreation ground in the first ever meeting between the sides and came out narrow losers in a high quality and exciting game of rugby, conceding three late unanswered tries to lose the spoils.
With several regulars missing through injury and unavailability Weston fielded another mixture of old heads and newcomers against a well drilled and organised Cleve.
The first ten minutes or so were frantic with both sides having equal amounts of possession and defending to do . It was the visitors who drew first blood with a well worked try which gave them a short lived 5-0 lead. This jump started the Weston pack who began to get the better of their opponents with no8 Tom Hughes and prop George Bamsey making huge inroads with some barnstorming and aggressive runs at the heart of the Cleve defence , soon after, some smart work at the tackle by Jake Middleton allowed himself to steal and score from 30m , Archie Tilsley adding the extras for a h/t score of WsM 7 Cleve 5
The second half started with Weston once more on the front foot in the pack and after a bullocking run from prop George Bamsey , disposing of several defenders en route , some good recycling led to makeshift tighthead Cosmin 'the beast' Bilcuresciu scoring a fine converted try under the posts . WsM 14 Cleve 5
To their credit Cleve refused to let their heads drop and came back with two fine tries through their powerful three quarters , to sneak into a 17-14 lead. Back once more came Weston , who were determined to regain their lead , after a tapped penalty no8 Hughes, who had his best game so far , crashed over , Tilsley converted for a score of WsM 21 Cleve 17 .
Any thoughts of victory were unfortunately premature for Weston , as a very determined Cleve scored three tries in as many minutes at the very end to give a harsh final score for Weston of WsM 21 Cleve 36.
Although a defeat , many positives came from the match , with Mason Cole , Reece Widlake and Dan Price , playing out of position on the wing , all playing in only their second game and gaining valuable match experience . Another debutant Connell Edwards , had a fine outing and looks an exciting prospect . Well done to all . Jon