Avon got off to a perfect start as a powerful forward drive sucked in the defence for centre Ollie Flight, who was to go on to play an integral part in a threating midfield with Escher Le Duc, to dummy over for the opening try. A poor restart exit from the resulting kick off, led to Wells opening their account with a penalty and the next quarter saw a fast and furious game with both sides going at it hammer and tongs.

Wells always threatened with their mixture of sharp handling outside and deft offloads from their imposing runners up front but were repelled with some outstanding home defence led by Ian Burnell, Sam Book and Kiddie Sheik. Meanwhile Avon put together some of their most fluent attacking rugby this season as they posed threats all over the field. With an attacking scrum, Book sneaked a strike against the head and a flowing move saw James Leeming scorch over in the corner for their second try.

Shortly afterwards, Avon emphasized their superiority as a massive surge from another clean line out resulted in the hugely promising Ben May claiming the touchdown for their third try. Just before half time, the visitors showed their capabilities as intense pressure and multi-phased attacks saw their constant support rewarded with two excellent tries to narrow the gap.

With JJ Pulvertaft making an immediate impression off the bench, Avon camped inside the visitors 22 but spurned three scoring opportunities, then a dangerous length of the field counter from Wells was only just snuffed out by Leeming, with the visitors having to make do with a penalty which gave them a slender lead. This was emphasized shortly after as they worked the blind side to score a soft try against a sleeping Avon defence to open up a six point lead.

In other matches, Avon may have capitulated at this stage but as Director of Rugby Clive Book astutely foretold at the time “ We’re the better team and have the edge and I’m confident we’ll come good in the end” Prophetic words indeed as the Black and Ambers responded with another three tries inside a purple patch in the final quarter. Fly half Rob Fitch started to control the game tactically through a mixture of booming clearance kicks and subtle grubbers to the corners whilst the pack dominated possession to allow Le Duq to cause untold problems in midfield. It was no surprise when Xander Davis finished off another period of pressure to crash over for his 8th try of the season to secure the try bonus point.

Even better though greeted Scott Book as a livewire performance was rewarded with an emphatic try against his longstanding rivals. With the experienced Ben Hurd and the effervescent Josh Harding-Wyatt joining the fray off the bench, Avon increased the intensity still further which allowed Ben May to cap a resolute display with his second try to seal a well-deserved win.

Afterwards coach Kai Harwood admitted “There were so many candidates for man-of-the-match today which summed up the spirit of this squad but our 2nd team captain Louis Belsten has really stepped up to the plate with injuries in the front row and could now make the position his own”

With the win taking them up to 6th place, Avon are looking to build on this next Saturday as they take on Weston Hornets.