Opening Day Defeat

Early Avon pressure had given them the lead through a Jonny Batchelor penalty before Taunton struck back with a try on the left wing. They increased their lead shortly after as they exploited some shoddy tackling for their second try.

An Avon drive from a 5 metre line out was held up over the line and their cause wasn’t helped as scrumhalf Ollie Flight had to go to hospital with a hand injury. Soon Avon closed the gap as close inter-passing amongst the pack saw skipper Kane Book just short of the try line before he offloaded to the supporting Liam Ridley to crash over.

Avon started to dominate possession, continually recycling the ball but also constantly being denied by outstanding Taunton tackling. Avon’s attacks also lacked some flair and guile with too many one-out charges rather than applying more depth and width to vary their tactics.

With half time approaching, a quick tap penalty inside the 22 by the visiting scrum half resulted in Taunton’s third try to give a slightly lopsided look to the scoreboard.

After the interval, a similar pattern emerged as Avon’s scrum were on top but found themselves unable to break down the defence until number 8 Dan Cousineau powered over the try line from a blindside scrum move. Batchelor converted to close the gap to two points.

A 30 metre lineout drive put Avon back in the ascendancy before Xander Davis burst through midfield to set up a great attacking platform. Unfortunately Avon then had a try disallowed for crossing in midfield whilst Taunton again showed their credentials with a try at the other end.

With 15 minutes to go, there was still only one score to separate the teams but it was noticeable that Taunton remained full of running and posed attacking threats with their support play. It was no surprise when their three quarters exploited a tiring Avon defence to score another two rapid tries to put the result beyond doubt in an entertaining game, well refereed by Will Whyte.

Next week Avon travel to take on Imperial in Bristol.