WELLINGTON U16s welcomed Topsham to the Athletic Ground - and gained a thrilling 36-31 victory.

Topsham started the stronger and scored two tries with their pacy backs and strong running number 8, showing some good handling which caused problems for Wellington.

With Wellington trailing 0 - 14 they needed some inspiration and they found it through Bailey Lee. Inside his own half with nothing much on he started beating defenders. First 1 then 2, 3, 4 and then a fifth as he scored in the corner to give Wellington hope.

Soon after a superb break by Brock Vallance with Ben Briddon supporting well led to Briddon scoring a second try for Wellington to trail 10 - 14 at half time.

In the second half Wellington knew they needed to up the effor. Topsham scored an unconverted try before Bailey got his second which was converted. Topsham then scored again before Brock scored a good individual try.

Bailey then ran another one in from inside his own half, this time converted by Brock to put Wellington back in front 29 - 24.

Topsham then hit back with another converted try to lead 29 - 31 with only five minutes left. Wellington went on the attack but it was all rather scrappy as Wellington sought the winning score. With the ball bobbling around on the Topsham 22m line prop Max McPhail picked up the loose ball and powered clear to score the winning try.

This capped a good performance for Max playing at prop for the first time. Charlie Taylor converted to make it 36 - 31 and Wellington won an entertaining game where the lead changed hands ten times. On most other weeks both Bailey Lee and Max McPhail would have played well enough to win the player of the week award but this week it went to Brock Vallance for causing Topsham all sorts of problems.