Avon denied in last minute at Yatton

It all started so well for Avon as they dominated the early exchanges and were immediately rewarded with a penalty from Rob Fitch, who was then forced off the field inside the first 5 minutes with an ankle injury. Avon kept up the pressure, retaining and recycling possession and stretching the home defence, but were too often guilty of white line fever as they rushed several scoring opportunities and were denied by needless penalties or wrong options close to the line.

Yatton equalised the scores with a penalty from their first attack, showing an example of things to come. Although Avon were missing powerhouse lock Jake Dixon and suffered further disruption as flanker Chris Sawyer was taken off with concussion, they pinned Yatton deep inside their own half and finally broke the deadlock with a trademark try from skipper Kai Harwood from a close range scrum.

As first half injury time was being played, Avon imploded and conceded 10 points, firstly from another penalty and then from a converted try with the last play of the half as the home centre cut a good line to score near the posts.

The second half followed a similar pattern as Avon were constantly penalised for their work in the loose play, thereby conceding territory and allowing Yatton to extend their lead to 19 points to 8 with another two successful penalties. As the hour mark passed, Avon finally threw off the shackles and started to put together some concerted moves resulting in another two well worked tries.

Firstly, from a quickly taken short penalty, Ollie Flight made ground before a quick switch to the blindside where Scott Book cleverly committed two defenders then released the ball out of the tackle to Kai Harwood who stormed over for his second try. Within 5 minutes Avon added another try as a lineout catch and drive sucked in the defence for Ben Hurd to power over the try line, with Shaun Wynes adding the extras. At 20 – 19, Avon thought they had done enough to sneak the win but they failed to control the ball to wind down the clock, enabling Yatton to engineer the position for their winning drop goal, leaving another losing bonus point as scant consolation.

Next week Avon are at home to league leaders Weston Hornets and know that they will need to up their game again.