WELLINGTON kicked off their 150th year anniversary season with a dramatic 28-20 win over Cullompton in Regional Two South West at the Athletic Ground.

It was a match which could have gone either way with the Devon side taking a 14-5 lead early in the second half and staying ahead until late in the match when Wellington scored two unconverted tries - through Mikey Taylor, by far the smallest player on the pitch, and George Hodgson, the second in added time.

Despite two inches of rain falling on the two days before the match, the pitch was in surprisingly good condition with Wellington taking the field with virtually the same squad as last season, with Danny Lee again captaining the team.

Cullompton, a physically bigger side, missed an early penalty before Wellington broke out from a scrum in their own half to score a try in the 17th minute through Lee at the clubhouse end, with Alex Davey off target with the conversion.

However, Wellington were soon under pressure and found themselves 7-5 down in the 20th minute when Josh Luxon went over for a try which he also converted.

There was no more scoring in the first half although Wellington had more of the play but were unable to add to their early score.

The Devon outfit quickly opened up a 14-5 lead shortly after the start of the second half when Matt Whitlock snapped up a try which Luxon converted.

Cullompton dominated for a spell before Ash Harney scored a splendid individual try for Wellington in the 53rd minute which Davey converted to make the score 14-12 to the visitors.

Cullompton stretched their lead to five points with a penalty by Luxon, and he added another in between a three-pointer by Davey, which meant Cullompton held a 20-15 lead with just over ten minutes of normal time remaining.

On 73 minutes, Wellington were awarded a penalty and decided to kick for three points which Davey obliged to close the gap to 20-18 in Cullompton’s favour.

Time was beginning to tick away and Wellington were in danger of losing their opening game of the season when Taylor wriggled over the try-line at the Coram’s Lane end. Wellington were now ahead 23-20 with only three minutes of normal time remaining but Davey could not add the extra points with his conversion attempt.

However just when it looked like being a narrow three-point victory for Wellington, Hodgson bullied his way over for another try and with the game now won , Taylor was given the task of kicking the conversion - but missed.

A minute’s silence was observed by both sides before the match in memory of former Wellington player and long-time member Derek Salter who died recently.