In a physical encounter, their Bristol visitors made them work hard all the way with their combative approach and deservedly scored a consolation try with the last move of the game to leave a final score line of 20 points to 7.

Avon opened the scoring early on after a massive forward drive sucked in the defence, allowing livewire scrum half Kiddie Sheikh to exploit the blind side with a sniping run before touching down out wide.

Despite several forward charges, led by Josh Hiscott and Dan Cousineau, and a disallowed try from Dan Griffin, the rest of the half remained scoreless until the stroke of half time. This was partly down to some rustiness from Avon but more particularly due to some outstanding tackling and impressive line speed from the Saints defence which gave them the edge.

Eventually Avon forced a series of attacking scrums inside the visitors 22, which Saints could only negate through conceding successive penalties. Finally another scrum surge rewarded their dominance as Cousineau drove over for their second try.

Immediately after the interval, Avon consolidated their lead. Cleanly taken line out ball on the right was swiftly transferred across field before being switched back to its origin where hooker Sam Book was lurking near the touchline before sidestepping inside the final despairing tackle to touch down.

St Bernadettes responded with several threatening attacks but were repelled by excellent Avon defence, led by skipper Kane Book.

Zak Harwood, making his 200th appearance for the Avon 1st team after progressing through the club’s junior ranks, was always a threat with his powerful bursts through midfield but also showed his deft hands with a sweet offload to enable Ollie Flight to stroll across the line for Avon’s bonus point try.

The underlying niggling tension saw a Bernadettes player red-carded with Avon receiving a yellow sin binning for retaliation as the game petered out. Matt Thresher made a thrilling 50 metre run before being hauled down just short of the try line but Avon couldn’t add to their tally before the visitors consolation score at the end.

On Saturday, Avon play the first of their rearranged games at Imperial.