Despite traveling to Minehead with 12 of their first team squad either injured or unavailable, the Avon team - which included Sam Harland and Marshall Arnold making their 1st team debuts and Luther Powell, Louis Belsten and Ryan Dellow having their first outing of the season - caused the table toppers a few problems . Avon had the better of the early exchanges and went ahead with a well worked try by Ollie Flight who was playing in the unfamiliar fly half role and the ever reliable boot of Johnny Bachelor added the extras from the touch line.

Minehead however are not unbeaten this season without a reason and play a fluid high tempo game and within 25 mins they had added 3 tries and a penalty to give them what looked like a comfortable lead. Avon with Ian Burnell delivering an outstanding performance both in attack and defence were not going down without a fight and when Flight sniped for a second try, followed by Ben Hurd finishing off an excellent Avon drive, it was a one point game at 22-21 before Minehead added a penalty just before half time.

Avon had the advantage of the slope in the second half but any hopes of a shock win were dashed when the home side added 3 tries in a ten minute period though some outstanding offloading and support to put clear daylight between the sides. The visitors however still had the bonus point to go for and, with one of this season's new recruits Escher Le Duc making some real inroads into the home defence with his powerful running, it was not long before Man-of- the-Match Burnell crashed over for the well-deserved bonus point try. This was never a game where defences were on top as 13 tries were scored in total with Avon adding to their score when new scrum half Kiddie Abdulquddus darted over for a very popular first try for the club.

Afterwards head coach Kai Harwood said "The score line doesn't reflect the heart and effort that the team put in today, from the youngsters to the debutants to the more experienced players, everyone did the club proud"

Avon’s poor start to the season now leaves them 2nd from bottom although the statisticians at the club will point out that they lost all of the same fixtures last year and still ended up in the top 4. Weston super Mare are the visitors to Hicksfield on Saturday and, with a number of players expected to be returning from injury, Avon will be looking for their first win and starting to climb up the table.