Weston 15 Clevedon 26

Clevedon Under 14's travelled to Weston in good heart following their previous resounding victory against Old Morganians and with two changes to the starting XV - Monty White replacing the injured Harry Williams and Caleb Selway stepping into the right wing position to replace the absent Liam Vickerstaff.

The boys started exactly as they finished off the game last Sunday. Almost straight from the kick off, Dane Richardson punched a large hole in the Weston defence, the move was carried on fluently up the right touchline before possession was retained and the ball spun back across the pitch for Harry Lyons to demonstrate his customary finishing prowess with a try in the left corner. Ethan Thomas landed the conversion with a clean strike.

Soon after and it was 14-0, Lyons was held up just short of the line and Thomas nipped in to the scrum half position and scrambled in down the blindside before landing a touchline conversion. Before the first 15 minutes were up the lads had extended their lead to 21-0, Mackenzie Poulter evading a number of challenges and sprinting in under the posts. Poulter then converted his own try.

At this point it looked as if the lads were all set for a consecutive landslide triumph but a strong Weston pack and a touch of complacency were to ensure that was to be far from the case. The game became increasingly based around a forward "arm wrestle" which suited Weston down to the ground as they established a dominant platform via a series of scrums. Clevedon lost their early fluency, and after the half backs taking the occasional wrong option, the pack being firmly under the cosh and a collective set of handling errors, it was no surprise when one of the Weston props showed a good turn of pace to score in the corner shortly before half time to reduce the deficit to 21-5.

The second half began in similar vein and only some tremendous tackling from Luke Palmer at full back prevented a further Weston score before their reward duly arrived. After an excellent and prolonged rolling maul was just held up, the resultant five metre scrum saw the Weston scrum half barrel his way over the line despite the combined efforts of Richardson and Thomas to hold him up.

Just as it looked as if Weston were going to claw their way back into contention, Thomas took the game away from them with an injection of pace and a neat sidestep to crash over for his second try. He missed the conversion leaving Clevedon holding a 26-10 lead with ten minutes to go.

Weston had the last word, and probably deserved it for their spirited response to a difficult start, as their speedy flanker retained his balance after attempted tap tackles from Thomas and Caleb Selway and skirted in under the posts although the subsequent conversion was pulled wide to leave Clevedon as 26-15 winners.

Plenty to work on for all of the lads, both individually and in their units, and a good wake up call to realise that you have to play with your heads as much as your hands. But another good victory and a record now of two wins from two games in the regular season with Winscombe up next on the 28th.