Tribute South West 1 West

Bridgwater & Albion 23, Wadebridge Camels 32

THIS was a game that Bridgwater would have targeted as a home win but it was not to be as the Cornish side generally out-muscled the Somerset side, writes Tony Pomeroy.

Wadebridge opened the scoring as early Bridgwater defensive errors saw visiting prop Richard Trelevan score an unconverted try after seven minutes.

A good break by Nick Francis put Bridgwater on the offensive but they had to be satisfied with a 35m penalty from Matt House.

Wadebridge increased their lead with two further tries to take a 19-3 half-time lead.

Early in the second half, Bridgwater narrowed the gap when, following a break by Nick Francis from a quickly-taken penalty on half way, Toby Payne got an unconverted try.

Camel's flanker Miles Davey was sent to the sin bin for an attempted head-butt and Matt Hastie then stole a loose ball and started a sequence that saw Rob Thompson score an excellent try converted by House.

He then closed the gap further with a 35 metre penalty which sailed between the posts.

Almost immediately, Bridgwater took the lead when Ollie Dunn, fielding a poor clearing kick on half way, broke through the Camels defence to score an unconverted try and give the home side the lead at 23-19.

But the Camels did not buckle and came back when hooker Matt Ballard crossed in the corner to record a four try bonus point and to regain the lead by one point.

Bridgwater lost the ball in the visiting 22, Wadebridge snapped it up and moved it quickly to Dom Hawkey who outpaced the defence in a 60m sprint to the corner and a coolly-taken dropped goal from 20m sealed the win for the visitors denying Bridgwater a losing bonus point.

Next week, Bridgwater visit East Devon for a match at Sidmouth when they will be looking for their second away win of the season.

Team: James Brakes, Garryn Basson, Simon Martin, Matt House, Toby Payne, Rhys Owen, Nick Francis, Matt Ruddle, Gavin Knight, James Bryant, Dan Kemmish (Capt), Rob Thompson, Luke De Sylva. Ollie Dunn, Chris Webber.

Rolling replacements all used: Matt Hastie, Nick Spellissy, Dominik Griffin