The first half was largely nip and tuck as both sides defences cancelled each other out before Avon eventually took the lead with a Jonny Batchelor penalty on 30 minutes.

The Avon pack were enjoying a slight edge in the set pieces as Dan Griffin dominated the line outs including several audacious steals on the Norton throw and with Kane Book anchoring a solid performance in the scrums. However, the visitors were slightly quicker in the loose play as the Avon runners often became isolated, leading to slow possession or turned over ball.

The first try of the afternoon finally arrived as Midsomer Norton centre Hugh Jeffrey cut back against the grain to elude 3 tackles on route to the line. Thomas Rideout slotted the conversion and also added a penalty shortly afterwards.

Avon responded after a massive 50:22 kick from Jake Coates resulted in a huge line out drive before the ball was unfortunately turned over in midfield. Then winger Jack Moore almost escaped down the touch line before being tackled just short of the line.

With a narrow 10-3 lead at the interval, the visitors realised that they needed to change their tactics by speeding up play and spreading the ball wide. After another successful penalty kick, this change of focus was rewarded as flanker David Sawkins backed up well to touch down and shortly after a flowing counter attack led to another converted try.

Avon responded well as a clever grubber kick from Rob Fitch turned the defence and Jack Moore won the race to the touch down with an acrobatic dive in the corner. With the last quarter of the match now under way, Midsomer Norton exploited a tiring defence with a series of sweeping counter attacks. Avon’s kick chase was too disjointed and, once Norton got in behind the first line of defence, their supporting players enjoyed 3 tries inside the last 15 minutes with Kieron Humphries the main beneficiary.

Avon showed character to hit back strongly as clean line out ball from Ben May led to fellow 2nd row Xander Hall-Davis surging over for a consolation try, converted by Batchelor as Midsomer Norton continued their perfect start to the season.