Although it was a slightly disjointed game, the visitors had few answers to the power of the Avon pack and to the constant support play out wide. The scene was set inside the first 10 minutes as a powerful scrum surge saw Scott Book touch down the pushover try. A penalty from Tom Boreham was cancelled out by a similar score from the Saints before the game exploded into life.

A lineout steal and charge upfield from Xander Davis resulted in the ball being swiftly transferred to the far corner with Ollie Flight, Josh Harding-Wyatt and Ian Burnell combining well to test the visitors defence. Then another soaring leap from Book set up a powerful forward drive which was only halted just short of the line, allowing Alex Gapper to celebrate his 21st birthday by sniping over on the blindside for a well-deserved try.

With the lively Will Hayward putting in a man-of-the-match performance on the flank and Matt Thresher impressing with a couple of dangerous runs down the wing, Avon soon extended their lead after the interval with another Boreham penalty. Then, after another attempted pushover try was disallowed, Avon made no mistake as they disrupted the Saints scrum before Book pirouetted out of a tackle to find Gapper in support for his second try.

St Bernadettes were rewarded for their perseverance as they recycled the ball well to create an overlap and reduced the deficit with a try in the corner. Avon brought top points scorer Jonny Batchelor off the bench for the final quarter and he immediately made an impact with a comfortable penalty to stretch their lead. He followed this up with Avon’s 4th try as he found space with a lengthy kick to the right wing where Dan Mutlow showed some nifty footballing skills to keep the ball in play before chipping it over the tryline, allowing Batchelor to seize their final score.

With the clock in injury time, Saints scored a consolation try as their centre cut an excellent line to crash over under the posts.

Next week, 3rd placed Avon face a tricky trip to play Minehead who sit in 4th position in the table.