WELLINGTON RFC Under 15s made the trip to Weston super Mare short of a few players and put up a strong performance before going down to a 33-24 defeat.

However, they will be disappointed not to have come away with a win as overall they were the better side.

The home side scored the first two tries to lead 14-0 before pressure from Wellington resulted in an attacking scrum 5m from the Weston try line. Alex positioned himself at No 8 and there was only one thing on his mind which was to pick the ball from the base of the scrum and batter his way over to score which he duly did.

Weston then scored again, courtesy of some questionable tackling by Wellington. From the resulting kick off Weston brought the ball forward only for Tom to rip it off them in the tackle and then cannonball his way through the Weston defence to score with Ruan adding the conversion.

Weston then scored again before Joby dived over to make it 17-28. Again some poor tackling allowed Weston to score before Salvador burst through from the centre with CJ converting to make the score 24-33.

Wellington set up camp in the Weston 22 for the rest of the game and had opportunities to score again which would have made for a very interesting last few minutes but did not take the chances and Weston were certainly relieved when the final whistle went.

The final score was Weston 33 Wellington 24. On the plus side the forwards were very strong, more than holding their own in the scrum and dominating the breakdown, winning numerous turnovers. Logan, starting at scrum half for the first time, took to it like a duck to water and the backs moved the ball well and could have scored more tries.

When they did tackle they regularly knocked the Weston players back and forced mistakes. The main difference between the teams was the slow start from Wellington when they leaked two quick tries meaning they were playing catch up and missing too many first up tackles which after the previous weekend’s fantastic defensive performance was surprising.

That said Weston were able to bring on seven subs compared to Wellington’s two, so the boys had to work really hard throughout the match. Ironically, they played better in the second half playing up hill into the wind than they did in the first half when the conditions were in their favour. All in all this was another good performance which, with a few improvements in some areas, could have resulted in a win. Man of the match was Tom C.

DF