Avon Tame Tigers

This was a historic game as it was the first-ever match between the two clubs, with the Tigers only being formed 4 years ago from some former pupils at Richard Huish College, together with some older players from Taunton RFC. Having won promotion last year, Huish had also been unbeaten for over a year.

Avon’s victory was based on a tremendous performance from their powerful pack, allied to some direct running from their backs. In a foretaste of what was to come, Xander Hall-Davis opened the scoring with an unstoppable burst over the try line with Jonny Batchelor adding the extras. Time and again, Hall-Davis charged at the defence in a man-of-the-match display to suck in defenders and create space for his supporting team mates.

Never far from the action were back row forwards Ian Burnell, Rhys van den Handel and Dan Griffin, supported by some powerful midfield bursts from Zak Harwood and Escher le Duc.

After Huish reduced the deficit with a penalty for offside, another multi-phased attack saw Batchelor add the gloss with Avon’s second try which he again converted. The Tigers sharpened their claws and showed their danger as they seized upon a handling mistake on halfway before spreading the ball wide to score a converted try on the left wing.

Avon’s forwards started to exert their influence despite Huish fielding two former Somerset players in their pack and another massive scrum surge resulted in a simple penalty from Batchelor. Once again the Tigers escaped and took advantage of an interception try to level the scores at half time with the conversion from in front of the posts.

In a similar pattern after the break, another powerful drive up front led to another Batchelor penalty to retake the lead. The next 30 minutes remained scoreless as Avon missed the killer instinct, leaving a couple of try-scoring opportunities unfinished. Meanwhile Huish always threatened another breakout until Avon finally put the result beyond doubt in the last 10 minutes.

More pressure inside the visitors half eventually paid off as scrum half Kiddie Sheikh pirouetted through the defence before reaching out backwards over his head to touch the ball down. Then as Avon again reached the red zone, an excellent cut-out pass allowed Sam Book to score the bonus point try in the corner. Two more Batchelor conversions in a personal 19 point haul saw Avon eventually cage the tigers.

On Saturday, Avon are at home to Minehead Barbarians whilst the 2nd team host Combe Down vets.