10 Wins In A Row !!

This was never going to be an easy ask in the depths of Somerset and Chard, equipped with four south African imports playing in their backline, were a totally different proposition to the side Clevedon had beaten earlier in the season and they pushed the Seasiders from start to finish.

On a sticky pitch the home side started well and were very physical at the breakdown, in actual fact too much so, and they gave away a penalty just inside their own half, coolly slotted over by the trusty boot of Kieran Hill. Chard continued to infringe and Clevedon were awarded three further penalties, which Hill made light work of, to take the lead to 0-12, with 20 minutes gone. The Seasiders then came under pressure from the home side and only stoic defence denied Chard any more than a penalty and a surprising sin-bin for Clevedon's scrum half Matt Britton. With 14 men Clevedon turned defence into attack and after several phases of play deep in the Chard half, a clever cross field kick from Kieran Hill, found the safe hands of Harley Foley who scored in the corner, Hill added the extras for 0-19. Just before the break the home fans had something to cheer when, after some swift handling, Chard scored an excellent converted try in the corner, for 7-19.

The only score of the second half came from the boot of Hill as both sides cancelled each other out, there were opportunities for both sides to score but dropped passes or poor decision making denied any further scores.

Head Coach Nick Hill commented "Chard are a much better side than their league position suggests and if they continue to play like they did today I'm sure they will avoid the drop. For us it was a very good win, I was particularly impressed, not only with our defence, but also the performance of the pack and our set piece scrum and line-outs were superb. The only downside was a bad shoulder injury to Rory Biggins who has been our outstanding forward so far this season."

There is no game next week but Clevedon are home to league leaders Weston, on 11th February with an earlier 1.30pm K,O