South West 1 West
Bridgwater & Albion 19, Clevedon 24

THIS was a bruising encounter from start to finish in which the home side never stopped fighting, but in the end it was playoff-chasing Clevedon who ran out the winners, writes Richard Walsh.

Albion opened the scoring after five minutes when skipper Ollie Dunn, who notched up his 150th first team appearance recently, picked up the ball after a scrum close to the visitors’ line, shook off a defender and crashed over for a try, which Stuart Heal converted.

Clevedon levelled things up on the quarter of an hour when Dean Ashfield touched down to the right of the posts, Kieran Hill adding the extras.

Almost right from the restart Hill put Clevedon ahead when he slotted home a long-range penalty, awarded for Albion failing to release the ball.

The Clevedon kicker put his side further in front with another penalty to make the score 13-7.

Kieran Devitt made a good run from deep before being tackled just short of the Clevedon line, as a result of which the visitors were reduced to 14 men and the hosts were awarded a penalty.

They kicked to touch in the corner but were unable to capitalise.

Just on the stroke of half time, Clevedon were awarded a penalty just inside the Albion half, which Hill landed to make the score 16-7 at the interval.

The home side started strongly after the break and for the first 20 minutes were in the ascendancy, but the Clevedon defence held firm, and try as they might Albion could find no way through.

In the end it was Clevedon who scored next when Cameron Maslen broke from defence and covered more than half the pitch to score a try in the left-hand corner to for 21-7.

At this stage of the game Clevedon might have thought that they had the game wrapped up, but the home side had other ideas.

With time running out, Albion’s persistence was rewarded when Oscar Tregenna ran down the left wing to score a try that brought the home crowd to life.

Two minutes later Roger Drabble produced a dazzling run before scoring the hosts’ third try, which Heal converted to make it 21-19.

Suddenly the game was wide open and both sides gave it their all, but with the minutes ticking away Clevedon were awarded a penalty midway out in front of the posts, which the reliable Hill kicked to make it 24-19 at the final whistle.

Bridgwater & Albion: Matt Ransom, Shaun Mahoney, Lewis Phillips, Dan Kemmish, Ethan Trebble-Westlake, Joe Stradling, George Sluman, Ollie Dunn (captain), Tom Forunier D’Able, Stuart Heal, Oscar Tregenna, Luke Plummer, Kieran Devitt. Replacements: Dave Norman and Jordan Buller (both used), Taylor Buller (not used).

DESPITE losing out, Bridgwater and Albion head coach Simon Morrell was pleased with the way that his team performed.

He said: “It’s rather frustrating because I felt we should have won the game but, given the 18 players we had in the squad and the disruption we had right up to kick off when Taylor Buller pulled out after injury in the warm-up, we were really competitive.

“Against one of the top two teams we competed in every aspect of the game and were relentless in our commitment. 

"Perhaps the only area where we were second best was in tackle completion, and there was a period in the second half where we missed some soft tackles, which led to their break away try which was the difference between us in the end.

“This game was a great opportunity to see how our extended squad performed against one of the best sides in the league, which was very pleasing and we outscored them three tries to two.

“In fact, if you didn’t know from the way we played, you wouldn’t be able to tell which team was chasing the play-off place."

The head coach went on: “If we’d had Micky Norman, Nick Spellissy, Rob Allen, Taylor Buller, Harry Collins and Adrian Tew, who were missing on Saturday in our line up then there is no doubt in my mind that we would have won.

“I was really very pleased with the way we played, more than after some of the games we have won this year and given where we were in September to now we are in a very good place to get the season over, rest up and get the squad back together in the summer and have a really good push for promotion next year.

“I thought Kieran Devitt, who stepped up and started in place of Taylor Buller, was exceptional and another great example of hard work in the training sessions paying off

“I was disappointed to have lost but I was really pleased the way that the boys all played, especially given the players we were missing.

“The agenda for our training sessions this week is clear and there is a lot we can build on and look back at it in a really positive light this week.”

On Saturday, the Albion travel to the Forest of Dean to play Drybrook who are in third place in the table, just below Clevedon.

“It will be more of the same, so we are all looking forward to the challenge and are still very keen on leaving our mark on this season.

"We will be looking for a win at Drybrook, so there is still plenty to play for.”