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Bridgwater & Albion 13 pts, Cullompton 29 pts

HEAD coach Kevin Innalls was left frustrated after Bridgwater made a stuttering start to their league campaign in a 29-13 defeat to Devon counterparts Cullompton.

Innalls said that lapses in concentration cost Albion the match on Saturday but that he was not too concerned at this early stage of the season.

He added: “We were not good enough and there were too many mistakes but we will keep rebuilding and when we get some of our injured players back that will give us a boost.”

Albion gave league debuts to frenchman Brice Le Capentier on the wing, Toby Payne at scrum half and Chris Webber at No 8 who made the move from Minehead.

Bridgwater had the bulk of the territory and the ball for much of the game but could make little headway against a firm Cullompton defence.

The visitors opened the scoring when they snatched on a loose ball on half way and a speculative cross kick to the right deep into the home 22 found the defence almost totally absent and Marcus Busch crossed in the corner.

When visiting winger Harry Shadbolt was sin-binned, Matt House kicked a simple penalty and Ashley Pippard almost scored following a kick and chase but the referee adjudged him to have knocked on.

Approaching half time, Bridgwater dropped the ball in midfield and Shadbolt cruised in for an unconverted try and a half time lead of 3-10.

Bridgwater continued to attack and gained hope when Chris Webber picked up and broke right, crossing in the corner for an unconverted try which narrowed the gap to 8-10.

But Cullompton increased their lead with three further tries before Bridgwater hooker Matt Hastie ran over the line to leave the score on 13-29.

The team travel to North Dorset, who last season won the Southern Counties South title last season, on Saturday.

Team: Nick Francis, Brice Le Capentier, Garryn Basson, Matt House, Ashley Pippard, Dominik Griffin, Toby Payne, Phil Triggol (rep Gavin Knight H/T), Matt Hastie, ames Bryant, Dan Kemmish (Capt), Rob Thompson, Nick Spellissy, Ollie Dunn, Chris Webber.

Reps not used: Matt Northey, Dan Steward.