12:00pm Sunday 22nd August 2010
By Tony Pomeroy
Bridgwater & Albion gave themselves some encouragement with this pre-season friendly win over Brixham. Yes, Brixham will be playing one division lower than Albion when the leagues start, but this was Bridgwater’s first victory since mid December last year and was very welcome.
The first XV game was preceded by the 2nd XV’s in a game that started an hour late as Brixham had been badly delayed on the M5. The visitors were too strong for the Bridgwater 2nd XV which was based around last season’s Colts XV and came out winners 24-12.
In the main game, Bridgwater fielded their Kiwi fly-half George Williams and he showed a number of all-round skills – in particular a huge right boot – which bodes well for the future.
The first quarter was mainly Brixham’s in territory but Bridgwater’s defence held firm. Then, in a rare attack, Williams received fairly poor ball on the visitors’ 22. A coruscating run saw him bamboozle the visiting defence for a try wide out on the right, which he also converted.
Twelve minutes later Williams showed his skill with the boot as his delicate chip from the Brixham 22 evaded the defence and Sam Osborne was adjudged to have won the touch-down near the posts. Williams converted to give the home side a 14-0 half time lead.
Within seconds of the restart, Steve Hunt fielded a Brixham kick and passed inside to Will Topps on his own 22. Topps ran at the defence, chipped ahead, re-gathered his own kick near the halfway line and outpaced the defence to score a wonderful individual try under the posts, giving Williams an easy conversion.
Bridgwater then lost the plot a little, losing the ball in contact far too often and conceded two tries - the first from a forward drive, attributed to Flashman, and converted by Lovell and the unconverted second from a good flowing move into the right hand corner.
The home side regrouped strongly and the score remained 21-12 for the final quarter as both sides made multitudinous changes. One Brixham replacement was former Bridgwater player, Dan Parkes, now coaching at Brixham.
It was a good game, well refereed by Carl Bennett, and both sides will have benefited from the match which was played in a sporting manner by both sides.
Bridgwater were missing some experienced players, James Bryant and Matt Hastie in the front row and Gavin Hancock in the backs but also included quite a few debutants at this level. All acquitted themselves well and will give Bridgwater & Albion some depth of talent in their squad.
Bridgwater start their league campaign with a visit to Oxford Harlequins on September 4. Harlequins were a very creditable third in this league last season with eighteen wins and only six defeats so a tough match can be expected there. The first home game is against Redingensians on September 11. They were sixth in the league last year winning half their matches.
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