The scoreboard showed a game of two halves as Minehead built up a substantial 36 – 12 lead shortly after half time before Avon started to whittle away to reduce the deficit before just running out of time at the end of a fascinating contest.

The Barbarians had taken an early lead after taking advantage of a loose pass before Avon immediately levelled as Ollie Flight sniped up the blindside to cross in the corner. Unfortunately, Avon’s scrum half injury jinx struck again as he was forced off the field, allowing youngster Toby King to make an impressive debut.

Although Avon continued to apply pressure deep inside the visitors half, their first-up tackling was not good enough which gave Minehead’s dangerous runners broken field space in which to attack. This led to two long range tries as Sam Chinn exploited the space through midfield.

Eventually, Avon’s persistence paid off and, after recycling the ball through several phases, Xander Hall-Davis powered over for a try converted by Rob Fitch.

Avon’s malaise recurred as poor defence resulted in Minehead’s exciting South African fullback Mu-eed Fritz, side-stepping and outpacing the cover to score a hat-trick of long range tries. This proved to be the end of the Barbarians scoring as Avon tightened their defence for the rest of the half and increased their attacking forays. Gus Disney came off the bench for his debut and made a series of crunching tackles, whilst Ed Higgins impressive performance led to his man-of-the-match award.

Successive waves of attack were eventually rewarded as Nat Harding finished off a flowing move for a well-deserved try. As Avon cranked up the pressure, Minehead started to incur a series of penalties and eventually the Black and Amber pack drove over for a pushover try scored by Tom Baldwin. As the end of the match approached, Ben Hurd powered over from a line out drive for Avon’s 5th try. Two successful Fitch conversions suddenly put the comeback win within sight but as the clock ticked down, Avon’s final attack on the visitors line was repelled to leave Minehead victorious.