Weston work hard

Match report by Kenny Braidwood

Weston Under 15’s made the short trip to Nailsea and Backwell to play their local rivals on their sloping and exposed home pitch. With Nailsea and Backwell without their regular front row scrums were uncontested for the whole of the match. This no doubt had a bearing on the game as Weston would have been confident that their pack would dominate in this area of the game.

Weston played downhill in the first half and from the kick off they kept hold of the ball and worked down field through the forwards. This
phase of play ended with Dom Marshall breaking through the line and scoring in the left hand corner. On a day which did not favour
goal kickers Jack Press missed the conversion.

Nailsea and Backwell gradually played their way into the game. But both teams struggled throughout the match with misplaced passes and losing control of the ball at the breakdown. Nailsea and Backwell scored two first half tries (one of which was converted) by getting
the ball out wide and out numbering the Weston defence.

Dom Marshall pulled back a score for Weston before half time by again showing his pace to break through the oppositions defence and finish out wide. Conversion was missed.

Half time Nailsea and Backwell 12 - 10 Weston super Mare

With Nailsea and Backwell now playing down hill they threatened to literally run away with the game and quickly scored three unconverted tries. Weston played into Nailsea’s hands at time by failing to clear quickly from their own 22.

Gradually Weston began to force their way uphill via some terrific carries and hand offs by Andrew Turner and Brooklyn Chamberlain in
particular. This brought Weston their third try when Andrew Turner was forced across the line at the bottom of the powerful Weston pack.

Conversion missed.

From the kick off Weston retained the ball and were by this stage beginning to make their passes count and this opened up play setting
Andrew Turner off and heading for the line. Turner selflessly got the ball out to Dom Marshall who made it to cross and score his third try of the day. Crucially Jack Press made the conversion. With time running out Weston were now only five points down.

As with other games this season Weston saved their best move for the final three minutes. Nailsea and Backwell were building pressure close to the Weston 22 looking to close out the game when the ball was collected by Kyron Pearce who put in a telling long clearing kick which had the Nailsea and Backwell team turning on their heels to chase the ball uphill. Good pressure from Harry Strutt meant that the Nailsea and Backwell player who collected the ball was isolated and well tackled. The ball broke free and was scooped up by Dom Marshall who sprinted across for his fourth try. The conversion from a wide angle was missed and the referee blew up for full time Weston done very well to come back from a 15 point second half deficit and showed good team spirit not to let their heads drop.

Special praise goes to Taylor Kingston who, playing at number nine, kept persevering at the uncontested scrums despite take several big hits as he tried to get the ball away.