Bridgwater & Albion 21-28 Thornbury

THREE tries Bridgwater and Albion in the final quarter of the match wasn’t quite enough to give the hosts the result they wanted, but it certainly rattled fifth placed visitors Thornbury who thought they were cruising to victory, writes Richard Walsh.

The match was sponsored by the Friends of Bridgwater & Albion RFC whose pre- match lunch was attended by almost 140 guests. Since being formed 17 years ago the Friends have raised in excess of £100k all of which has been used to support the club.

The hosts were led out onto the pitch by Will Monro who was making his 75th appearance for the First XV, an occasion he marked by scoring another try bringing his tally to 35 over the course of four seasons to date.

The opening exchanges saw Albion creating pressure on the Thornbury defence and after 10 minutes a Thornbury player was yellow carded. The hosts opened the scoring when Oskar White kicked a 30 metre penalty..

The visitors responded strongly and on 20 minutes Tom Constable went over for a try which Jack Pinker converted.

Five minutes later White kicked his second penalty to put Albion just one point behind, before Monro set off on one of his dazzling runs, down the wing which on this occasion didn’t lead to a score.

The last few minutes of the first half saw Thornbury in the ascendancy during which Luke Panting scored an unconverted try and Pinker kicked a penalty making the score 15-6 to the visitors at the interval.

Thornbury attacked from the off after the break but Bridgwater kept them at bay until on 52 minutes Pinker slotted home another penalty. The visitors extended their lead when Jack Wood went over for a try which Pinker converted, and a few minutes later the kicker was on target with a penalty making it 28-6 to the Gloucestershire side.

If the visitors thought they had the game sewn upon then they were in for a shock as Albion fought back strongly and scored three tries in quick succession, much to the delight of the large crowd who were in attendance at the final home game of the season

First of all it was Oskar White, who had a cracking game throughout, who spotted a gap from a long way out and ran in to score with a solo effort. Two minutes later Monro gathered the ball in his own half and ran down the left wing before scoring a try in the corner.

The Albion’s final score came from 19 year old Olly Davis who has grown so much in stature since going the club from Wells at the start of this season, who charged through the middle before crashing over making the final score Bridgwater & Albion 21 Thornbury 28.

Albion’s final game of the season is away at Wellington on Saturday April 23rd.