On a lovely spring afternoon, albeit a heavy pitch, for a large part of the game the two teams traded scores before Avon’s superior edge allowed them to pull away in the last quarter to finish up convincing winners.

Early Avon pressure was repelled by stout Minehead defence. After a couple of Avon try scoring opportunities were denied, the Barbarians suddenly turned over possession and launched a counter attack from deep inside their own 22. Swiftly moving the ball wide, their dangerous Kiwi winger set off on a mazy run to score a converted try under the posts.

Avon once again attacked and once again, Minehead scored at the other end with a long range flowing move for another converted try. At 14 points adrift and getting sucked into a fast and frenetic game, Avon needed to take stock and revert to some basic forward drives to retain possession and settle into some sort of rhythm. This approach paid off after several thunderous charges from the pack created the position where Dave Attwood used his version of the American football “quarterback sneak” by diving over the top of the melee of players to force the touchdown. Rob Fitch converted.

As Avon started to enjoy more dominance up front with an excellent performance from their front row, more opportunities followed. A flowing three quarter move saw the ball swiftly transferred along the back line to winger Jack Moore. Showing great pace, he scorched up the touchline in a 60 metre sprint before cutting inside the despairing cover tackles to score their second try. Fitch again added the extras to level the scores at 14 apiece at half time.

Playing with the wind at their backs in the second half, Avon again ramped up the pressure with Ian Burnell and Xander Hall-Davis making the hard yards up front whilst Stu Dilloway make a welcome reappearance in the centre with an impressive display. More sustained pressure saw Rob Fitch spot a half gap before freeing his hands through the attempted tackles to offload to the supporting Dan Cousineau who strolled over for another converted try.

Yet again Minehead came back with a try in the corner from a cross field kick before Fitch slotted a penalty. In the topsy-turvy vein of scoring, the Barbarians again struck next with their bonus point try. This levelled the scores at 24 – 24 but proved to be their last points of the match as Avon increasingly took a stranglehold on proceedings.

With their bench entering the fray to bolster the pack, the Black and Ambers camped inside their visitors 22, forcing a string of penalties with powerful line out drives and scrums. This achieved its first reward as number 8 Dan Cousineau was the beneficiary of a pushover for his 15th try of the season. Then, quickly recycled ruck ball was moved back to the blind side where swift hands transferred the ball to man-of-the-match Moore who dotted down by the corner flag.

There was still time for Avon’s 6th try of a successful afternoon as skipper Kane Book won another good front line out before the defence was sucked in. Quickly recycled possession reached big Josh Hiscott who cut a great line to finish with aplomb.

Avon’s 12th win from 17 matches was also notable for another astonishing fact. Director of Rugby Clive Book was “guilty” of missing only his 4th match in the 29 years since 1996 as a player, coach and DoR. A truly astonishing achievement and testament to Clive’s dedication and loyalty.