Tribute South West One West

Bridgwater & Albion 6, Hornets 19

BRIDGWATER & Albion slipped to a 19-6 defeat at home to promotion favourites Hornets on Saturday, in what was a scrappy affair, writes Tony Pomeroy.

Hornets match-winner was full back Matthew Cornish, whose powerful running from deep caused Bridgwater a host of problems.

He scored the opening try of the game after six minutes when the ball reached him some 40 metres from the line and near the right touch line.

He tore through a number of attempted tackles and scored a superb individual try under the posts - Jermaine Jones had no trouble with the simple conversion.

For Bridgwater, it was the old story - they had plenty of possession and territory but could not score even when Hornets lost scrum half Sean Disney to a yellow card for a technical offence.

With half time approaching, Bridgwater lost the ball at a defensive scrum and Hornets cleverly chipped the ball to the right corner where Jones touched the ball down just short of the dead ball line. He failed to convert his own try.

On the stroke of half time, Stuart Heal opened the home account with a 40 metre penalty kick that made the interval score 3-12.

Early in the second half, a Hornets five-metre scrum was driven towards the home line where number eight Matt Parker picked up and crashed over the line - Jones converted.

Heal then narrowed the gap with a straightforward penalty to end the scoring at 6-19.

The rest of the half was stalemate with Bridgwater again failing to capitalise when visiting player-coach, Alec Chase, was yellow-carded for a culmination of team offences.

The game had been littered with errors by both sides and was not a good advertisement for this level of league rugby.

For Bridgwater, Rob Allen and Ollie Dunn, as ever, gave their all for the cause, but with little reward.

Hornets never got on the right side of the referee, conceding a massive nineteen penalties, but Bridgwater could not capitalise on this largesse.

Bridgwater, on the other hand only conceded seven, with two more free kicks.

Next week, Bridgwater journey up the M5 to Thornbury to meet a side one place and seven points higher in the table and also with two matches in hand.

Bridgwater have never lost a league match to Thornbury and will be hoping to maintain that record next week before hosting relegation-threatened Wadebridge Camels in the final home game of the season on April 5.

Scorers:- Bridgwater & Albion Pens:- Heal (2)

Hornets Tries : Cornish, Jones, Parker Cons: Jones (2)

Bridgwater Team: Nick Francis, Bryan Webb, Rob Allen, Garryn Basson, James Brakes, Stu Heal, Roger Drabble, Lovejoy Chawatama, Matt Hastie, James Bryant, Ali Blundell. Dan Kemmish (Capt), Nick Spellissy, Ollie Dunn, Tayler Buller.

Replacements used: Scott Woolford, Joe Stradling. not used: Simon Martin Referee: Brian Perry (Somerset)