Osborne in form as Somerset final bid just fails

8:29am Sunday 18th May 2008

Bill Beaumont Cup: Somerset 37, Middlesex 17

SOMERSET failed valiantly at Taunton on Saturday as they attempted to reach the final in their first season of top-tier county championship rugby.

They needed to win their final group match by at least 20 points and hope that champions Devon would lose to Gloucestershire at Plymouth.

An impressive Somerset side achieved the first target, but Devon scraped home 10-7 for their third victory and will play Yorkshire in the final at Twickenham.

Full-back Sam Osborne was the only Bridgwater & Albion player in the starting line-up and was in fine form. He delivered the scoring passes for the two tries by Weston's Chris Crichton, a deceptively frail-looking Kiwi wing, who showed good strength and pace to get over.

Two penalty tries, one in each half, put Somerset 32-3 ahead early in the second half, but they lost the fluency they had shown before the interval and allowed a battling Middesex side to score twice, which made the scoreline respectable.

The visitors included ex-England forward Chris Sheasby at No 8 and his class showed in a pack that was otherwise outplayed by a powerful Somerset eight.

Somerset's final try came from ex-Bridgwater & Albion forward Steve Hunt, who now plays for South-West-One Cleve and was a second-half replacement.

Albion skipper Ben Purcell, scrum-half Matt Ranson and wing Tom Thie also went on in the second half, while Somerset's lively debutant scrum-half was Leeds University student Steve Depledge, grandson of well-known Bridgwater skittles figure Ivor Depledge.

As they did last season, when they were losing finalists in the County Shield, Somerset scoured the Premiership and national leagues for players with connections to the county.

Some of the brilliant rugby they played in the first half on Saturday was a tribute to the efforts of chairman of selectors John Williams and his colleagues.

Scorers: Somerset - Tries: Crichton (2), penalty tries (2), Hunt. Cons: Cozens 3. Pens: Cozens 2. Middlesex - Tries: Collier, Barr. Cons: Mahoney 2. Pen: Mahoney.

Somerset team: Osborne (Bridgwater); Crichton (Weston), Leonard (Clifton), Messer (Bath), Sprague (Weston); Cozens (Bath), Depledge (Leeds Univ); Ovens (Bath), Cooper (Redruth), Jarvis (Bath), Pape (Cornish All Blacks), Griffiths (Bath), Sprangle (Cornish All Blacks), Denbee (Plymouth Alb, capt), Sparks (Weston). Reps (all used): Thie, M Ranson, Purcell (all Bridgwater), Rowlands (Stourbridge), McMillan (Clifton), McGrath (Old Reds), Hunt (Cleve).