Match report: Bridgwater & Albion 15, Old Patesians 22 (From Bridgwater Mercury)

Match report: Bridgwater & Albion 15, Old Patesians 22

8:00am Tuesday 17th January 2012 in Bridgwater & Albion News

NEW head coach Kevin Innalls could not start with a win in his first home match at the helm as Bridgwater lost 22-15 to Old Patesians, writes Tony Pomeroy.

The visitors have now secured the double over Albion and despite dominating the possession and territory, Bridgwater kept fighting to the end.

Jake Childs is likely to miss the rest of the season with a torn muscle in training and was replaced at flanker by Ollie Dunn.

Bridgwater will be thankful to get a losing bonus point from the game but it took a series of penalties awarded against Old Pats in injury time to move the game the length of the field.

Bridgwater ran every one of those penalties - even from their own line - and were eventually rewarded when replacement Ashley Pippard crossed in the corner. Sam Osborne's conversion from the touchline was long and straight giving the home side some reward on a cold afternoon.

Old Pats took an early lead when flanker Ben Walsh crossed after a period of intense pressure with a conversion from James Butler.

Bridgwater took the game to their visitors and were unfortunate when they crossed Old Pat's the line but were unable to ground the ball to the referee's satisfaction.

Albion narrowed the gap with a sniping try by scrum-half Roger Drabble from the base of a ruck following a good break by Osborne whose conversion attempt flew well wide.

Old Pats applied pressure after the interval and were rewarded with two tries as winger Joe Ballinger scored in the corner and centre Leo Fielding burst through some innocuous tackling and scored easily at the posts to leave Butler a simple conversion.

Bridgwater then put together a good move, giving themselves a platform in the opposition 22, and were rewarded when the home backs fell offside and Osborne kicked the straightforward penalty.

An Old Pats break took play deep into Bridgwater territory. Awarded a couple of penalties, Old Pats opted for scrummages but Bridgwater defended solidly. Another penalty award resulted in three points for Butler and a 14 point lead.

When Old Pats were penalised and Bridgwater realised that the game was over if the ball went dead, they ran from their own line and youngster Ashley Pippard showed an excellent burst of pace on the wing to score a try to conclude the match.

The team will travel to Weston super Mare next week.

Bridgwater Team: Sam Osborne (Capt), Garryn Basson (rep Ashley Pippard 73), Rob Allen, Matt House, Kyle Giblett, Dominik Griffin, Roger Drabble, James Bryant, Gavin Knight, Joe Bussell, Ali Blundell, Rob Thompson, Jerry Darley (rep Haydn Johnson 69), Ollie Dunn, Dan Kemmish.