Avon left frustrated after defeat
Avon endured a frustrating game as they suffered a 22-12 loss despite dominating large portions of the match. Yet Yatton always looked dangerous and showed a clinical edge to finish off their try scoring opportunities.
For much of the first half, Avon experienced the lion’s share of possession and territory but couldn’t convert their dominance into points in the face of some determined defence from their wellorganised visitors. Three surging breaks from Xander Davis, Kiddie Sheikh and Escher le Duq came to nothing as they ran out of support.
Although Avon had the edge up front in the set pieces, they couldn’t make the vital breakthrough and the half seemed to be petering out before Yatton suddenly exploited some missed tackles for their supporting prop to crash over for a converted try with the last play of the half.
To make matters worse, the referee decided an accidental Avon collision merited two players being substituted at half-time due to potential head injuries and, with Ollie Flight also having previously injured an ankle, Avon were left to reorganise with no further replacements available for the rest of the match. Yatton added another converted try immediately after halftime to leave Avon chasing the game.
With Guy Palmer making a solid debut in the centre, a sustained period of pressure from the Black and Ambers eventually brought its reward as clean line out possession from Dan Griffin was switched wide for winger Tai Harwood to score at the corner flag. Jonny Batchelor added the extras.
Yatton continued with their highoctane recycling game, quickly moving the ball wide at every
opportunity to test the defence and this approach paid dividends as they scored a penalty and then a try from a line out drive.
With the visitors’ impressive number 8, who had been outstanding throughout, yellow carded for killing the ball, Avon took advantage with several powerful 5m scrums before sucking in the defence and transferring the ball wide for Harwood to add his second try but in the end, it was too little too late.
Scrum-half Sheikh was awarded man-of-the-match with an all action display and they will seek to bounce back from this defeat with a visit to Imperial next week.
AVON RFC are staging another Schools Tag Rugby Festival on Thursday, October 7 between 10am and 2pm. This features around 120 boys and girls from Years 4/5/6 in the four local schools within their community cluster.
The event is played on a roundrobin basis but with the emphasis on enjoyment rather than seeking winners, which allows the children the chance to demonstrate their skills and teamwork. Every child attending will be awarded a medal and a certificate for participating. A group of junior leaders from St Marks school will also assist by acting as referees for the matches.
The festival backs up the voluntary coaching sessions that Avon have been running in these schools over the past three years, led by their schools coaching & liaison
officer Andie Parry. Over this period Parry has personally carried out around 60 coaching sessions covering hundreds of schoolchildren.
He said: “The reward is seeing how the youngsters develop and the festival provides a wonderful chance for them to put their skills into practice.”
Following the festival, Avon Minis & Juniors will be holding two open days at their normal Sunday morning coaching sessions at their Hicks Field ground off the London Road at Batheaston. These take place on Sunday 10&17 October between 10-11.30am and any newcomers who want to join in will be made most welcome.
These sessions continue every Sunday morning through the season until April and are run by qualified RFU coaches. Avon’s Minis organiser Kane Book said: “We have a great group of young players and fun always comes first at our club so please don’t be afraid to come along and sample our rugby activities.”
■ AVONVALE played their first league game for over a year and a half and in their highest ever league position. Having been promoted to Southern Counties South, the Vale welcomed Yeovil to Crown Field and although they took a while to get into the game they were certainly not overawed by their opponents.
After a stalemate for the first 30 minutes, Yeovil were first on the scoreboard scoring a converted try through their winger.
Vale had their chances but did not capitalise as the score stayed the same at half-time. Yeovil extended their lead with two penalties to make it 13-0.
With the Vale finally getting the pace of the game, they attacked the Yeovil line.
From a lineout, scrum-half Alex Pugh stole round the side of the ruck to score wide out. Crucially the conversion was missed. The game was nip and tuck but with ten minutes to go Vale had a lineout 5m from the Yeovil line. The Yeovil defence collapsed the driving maul and Vale were awarded a penalty try to bring them within a point.
Try as they might, Vale could not gain the extra points and lost 13-12.
Coach Dave George said: “It took us a while to get the pace of the game and also to realise we had to work a lot harder in certain situations on the pitch but overall we are pleased with the way the lads stepped up and performed and although their is a lot to improve on we are confident of staying in this league”
■ BATH SARACENS had a fine start to their Dorset & Wilts league season, with an 87-0 home win against Warminster 2nd. The writing was on the wall when winger Paddy Thomas finished off a move from a line-out in the first minute. Thomas went on to add a further five touch downs for his double hat-trick.
Sarries accumulated a total of 13 tries, with scrum-half Hamish Donelly making a notable contribution adding nine conversions and a try.
Whilst delighted with the result, Sarries will also be pleased with their solid defensive effort that didn’t concede a single point to the visitors, who despite the scoreline battled hard for a consolation right through to the final whistle.
Sarries now face a difficult run of fixtures through the month of October, starting with a trip to Amesbury, followed by games against two of the league favourites, Bradford on Avon and Wheatsheaf RFC.