WELLINGTON, a man short for much of the game, crashed to a 66-10 home defeat against second-placed Tiverton in Regional Two South West.

Wellington, far from full-strength going into the game, never seriously recovered from losing Liam Phillips through injury and skipper Danny Lee, who was sent off for an alleged elbow, early on in the match.

Tiverton, a much heavier outfit, kicked a penalty after only two minutes and were relentless throughout the game.

The Devon side led 28-3 at the interval and scored four tries in quick succession before Wellington managed to score a try through Charlie Higgs, converted by Alex Davey, to make the score 52-10.

But Tiverton kept the home side under pressure, scoring two more converted tries to finish easy winners.

Wellington’s only points of the first half came from the boot of Alex Davey who kicked a penalty to make it 13-3 after 20 minutes.

Victory enabled Tiverton to stay second in the table - but they are ten points behind title favourites Topsham who won 26-14 at Cullompton.

Meanwhile, Wellington play away to Burnham on Sea in the quarter-finals of the Somerset Cup on Friday, November 22.

Burnham play in Somerset One Western North where they are struggling near the foot of the table.