Disrupted by their late arrival and with several players playing in unfamiliar positions, Avon made a sluggish start and were 2 tries down inside the first 15 minutes. St Bernadettes in contrast were keenly prepared and made an explosive start, scoring their first try almost from the kick off thanks to several missed tackles. They adopted a pacey open style and soon were rewarded with their second try from a quickly taken short penalty to touch down near the posts for the easy conversion.

Avon dug in and worked hard to get back up the slope but all too often were undone by a series of handling errors and turnovers. After a few dangerous runs from Jonny Batchelor, he did slot a penalty to open Avon’s account. Their forwards, led by man-of-the-match Chaz Meddick, then started to get on top with some thunderous scrums and eventually gained a pushover try from Ben Hurd for his 10th try of the season. With Batchelor’s conversion, Avon somehow only turned around 2 points adrift at half time after withstanding a pounding from the Saints attacks.

Unleashing their strong bench at the interval, Avon immediately reaped dividends as Ian Burnell powered forward to create space and then, after a series of pick-and-drives, Xander Davis surged over for the try to take the lead. Now in the ascendancy, Zak Harwood suddenly burst through midfield and found Will Hayward in support to charge over for their 3rd try, again converted by Batchelor to top 150 points for the season. With Tom Boreham showing some good touches in midfield and Meddick enjoying a storming game in the tight and loose play, Avon soon added the next try as Ollie Flight cruised over for the touchdown.

With 20 minutes left to play down the slope, Avon then failed to deal with the restart and suffered another blow as influential skipper Scott Book was forced to leave the field not long after coming off the bench with a nasty ear injury after a gratuitous stamp from one of the home forwards. The final quarter remained scoreless as Avon’s defence withstood another Saints onslaught to close out the game.