Avon 15 - Bristol Harlequins 10

Early pressure was rewarded with an opening penalty from flyhalf Rob Fitch. As Avon started to test the Quins defence, Fitch followed this with a clever inside switch to stalwart Damien Sawyer who picked out a great line off the wing to sprint through for an excellent converted try at the posts.

Although new prop Alex Hunt was forced off through injury, Chris Mutlow made a timely return to the Avon pack which was already missing both its hookers and suffered further disruption when prop Kane Book was yellow-carded for allegedly killing the ball. With Zak Harwood and Jake Dixon making inroads into the visitors defence and Chris Eames threatening out wide, Avon cranked up the pressure.

A storming run from Stuart Dilloway seemed to result in another try from Rob Fitch in the corner but, although awarded by the referee and accepted by Quins, it was over-ruled by the touch judge. Two plays later, the visitors were at the other end of the pitch and slotted a penalty for offside to reduce the deficit to 10 points to 3 at half time.

The second half was fairly evenly matched as Quins tried to dominate with their close forward drives and Avon sought to open things up with their offloading and support game but suffered from a lack of continuity. Having spurned an earlier penalty chance, Avon pulled further ahead as quickly recycled possession found young centre Zak Harwood in space to storm over for their second try.

With 10 minutes to play, a lapse in defence allowed Quins to score a converted try and gave them an incentive to go for an unlikely win. Fortunately Avon’s competitive desire and teamwork, with 5 sets of brothers in their squad, repelled all the visitors’ attacks to close out the game for a well deserved win.

Next week, Avon resume old rivalries at Burnham on Sea for another test of their credentials at this higher level.