Tribute South West One West

Teignmouth 54 Bridgwater & Albion 0

BRIDGWATER'S travelling band of supporters were treated to an excellent display by the home team and a well-below par performance from Bridgwater & Albion, writes Tony Pomeroy.

Bridgwater went behind after only two minutes. A couple of penalties to Teignmouth gave then a lineout deep in the Bridgwater 22 and a driving maul from the lineout saw home hooker, Pete Parsons driven over for the opening try. Faolan Lidstone's conversion attempt from the touchline was wide.

Bridgwater exerted pressure of their own with skipper, Ollie Dunn to the fore. Rob Allen, in a trademark run, went close but failed to score and then Ashwin did cross the home line but was unable to ground the ball to the referee's satisfaction.

When the home side were penalised at a five metre scrum, Bridgwater opted to scrum again and should have scored but Scott Franklin, with a player unmarked outside him, was tackled just short. It was turning out to be one of those days.

When Teignmouth broke out of defence, first Lidstone kicked a 40m penalty and then two unconverted tries for the home side followed when first, winger Will Sowden benefitted from a chapter of defensive accidents and then prop, Gareth Williams ran some 40m through a host of missed tackles for the second.

Bridgwater hit back and a couple of good touchline runs from Allen deserved some sort of reward but the final score of the half saw the bonus-point try that ensured Teignmouth were safe from relegation when Lidstone got a fine individual - but unconverted - try for a 25-0 half time score.

Bridgwater changed scrum halves at half time with Tom Fournier D'Albe replacing Scott Franklin.

Immediately after half time came a controversial try scored by Luke Pattison converted by Lidstone, quickly followed by another when full back Danny Luffman sprinted 70m to score and leave Lidstone an easy conversion.

Bridgwater rang the replacement changes, giving a first XV debut to prop Ryan Gibson, replacing Gabriele Nobili, who started 'out of position' at prop. Nick Spellissy also replaced Rob Thompson.

Teignmouth, with veteran centre Jason Luff pulling all the strings, were totally dominant and in the final quarter racked up another three unconverted tries through, Luff, fellow centre, Matt Laventure and No 8 Matt Ford.

During this time, Bridgwater had to bring back Franklin and Nobili to replace Allen and Gavin Knight who both suffered injuries.

Bridgwater's heart did not seem to be in this game. Teignmouth wanted the points far more than Bridgwater, and it showed for eighty minutes.

The Bridgwater scrum, benefitting from the work put in by Carl Rimmer, looked quite solid and, for some time, dominated the set pieces.

The lineout work was generally sound with only one ball lost on the throw. It was the tackling - or the lack of it - and decision making that ultimately cost Bridgwater their heaviest defeat for some time.

Next week, in the final league match of the season, Bridgwater host a mouth-watering local derby against North Petherton who will be out to avenge the defeat they suffered in the first game of the season.

This game will kick off at 3pm and will be preceded by the 2nd XV's of both clubs playing a match in Somerset Division 1, which will kick off at 1pm.

On Friday evening, why not pop along to North Petherton to watch the Colts XV's in the first of the three weekend derby matches - 7.30pm KO.