This was a juicy encounter against our closest neighbours with the honour of local bragging rights at stake. It was a gorgeous sunny morning played on the heavy surface of “The Vale” and with England's “must win” 6 nations clash against Wales looming this game served as a very fitting prequel.

It was clear right from the early exchanges that both sides were very much “up for it” and defence reigned as it played out with a “cup final” kind of vibe. Although it was clear no love was lost between the two teams and some of the close quarter battles were a little too close to the mark I'm certain both sets of players had no serious foul play intentions and a great deal of respect for one another was gained. In the past month, since our capitulation at the hands of Wellington, our defence has steadily improved week on week. This performance was again another small improvement with good general all round tackling from most of the squad. Unfortunately Yatton were very much a mirror image of ourselves with spookily similar traits and qualities, and therefore a pretty resolute defence as well. And so, much like any 6 nations encounter, defences stood strong and whilst each side took turns in applying waves of pressure it was clear that only a moment or two of unselfishness, creativity or brilliance would separate them come the final whistle.

Clevedons moment of unselfishness, creativity or brilliance came courtesy of the rapidly improving Danny Harris, whose new found freedom at No.10 saw him sell a very cheeky dummy before darting through the stunned Yatton ranks and glided over the whitewash. All I can say is - It’s a good job he made it, otherwise he would have been subject to a very stony faced father muttering something about “what have I told you” and the ethics of teamwork!!! Other notable performances came from Woody “The Ram” whose tackling of Yattons strike runners was both brave and relentless. Our relative newbie Finn was awarded “hero of the day” for his drastic improvement in recent weeks, and can now pass, tackle and even clearance kick with the best of them! Also Mr Munn who stepped into hooker and thrived in the new world of close quarters combat – although he will have to stop flicking his hair around if he wants to be taken seriously as a front row forward! Business as usual for the Tiny Tornado living on the edge of offside and wreaking havoc amongst the Yatton ranks.

The game stayed at 5-0 until midway through the second half when after a prolonged period of pressure on the Clevedon line a brief lapse of concentration allowed Yatton to pick up at the ruck and dart across from a couple of yards with 3 or 4 Blue and Golds desperately trying to stop him. And that is how it stayed with even a further 10 minutes of additional time unable to separate them. To be honest we could have played all night, the boys both sides of the border had put too much effort in to allow any more movement on the scoreboard, and in all honesty it was very fitting and fair reflection of the day.

And so what can we take from the game and where are we generally as we embark on the final third of the season, and with tournament rugby on the horizon? We are very much beginning to understand how to defend, however if we were a little more organised we could make life a lot easier for ourselves. Our set piece is very good, although I think most of this is down to brute strength rather than technique and if we can begin to embrace the latter we could not only secure all of our own set, we could actually begin to steal a big slice of the oppositions. Our ruck and maul is slowly evolving and will continue to do so with each outing, its knowledge and experience that’s holding us back rather than anything else. Our attacking endeavour is possibly the most undeveloped facet of our play, sadly we still seem to opt for singular runners rather than using supporting teammates. But that said the offloading game that I openly laud is really breathtaking when it happens – more of that please, it’s the future. Finally: Commitment and Team Togetherness. Apart from the sour faced whinging we have to endure occasionally, I have to say the transformation this year both on and off the field has been very noticeable and pleasing. We really seem to be embracing the fact that we are a TEAM with the same goal and that everyone has an important part to play. It is because of this we are beginning to enjoy Sundays even more and in turn we are beginning to trust each other in defence…….if only we could start to trust each other in attack we would be deadly!

Next Up, a great double header down the road against WSM and Cheddar.