From Avon’s perspective, the match could be summarised by some uncharacteristic spells of sloppy defence, a series of missed chances in attack and a certain amount of tactical naivety. Meanwhile Wells were absolutely clinical in finishing off their try scoring opportunities and also produced an outstanding defensive display.

The writing was perhaps on the wall inside the first two minutes as the powerful Wells centre exploited some weak tackling to surge under the posts for their opening converted try. Playing up the slope, Avon worked their way back into contention and were rewarded when winger Matt Thresher showed pace and power to touch down in the corner.

Their comeback was short-lived though as Avon momentarily relaxed, expecting Wells to kick a penalty to the corner only for their quick-witted opponents to take a quick tap to score their 2nd try out wide.

A large part of the game was then played out in the middle third of the pitch without either side really gaining ascendency before Avon scored a well-worked try as livewire scrum half Kiddie Sheikh broke up the blind side before releasing Thresher to storm through for his 2nd try. This brought the half time score to 12-10 to Wells and Avon felt reasonably confident of utilising the slope to good effect in the second half.

It was not to be though as Avon failed to show enough creativity to break down the stubborn Wells defence who soaked up their one-out runners. Neither did they use lengthy kicks downfield to force Wells to defend from deep, apart from one occasion when Avon were denied a try from a line out drive as skipper Kane Book was held up over the try line.

An innocuous Wells attack near halfway then saw their dangerous centre break through two attempted tackles to score an excellent individual try under the posts. To make matters worse, a flowing Wells handling movement from the restart allowed them to seemingly ghost through to add another converted try immediately afterwards.

Having shipped 14 points in 2 minutes, Avon were left chasing the game and despite a couple of threatening runs from Jake Coates and some strong bursts from Dan Cousineau, they were only able to muster a consolation try from Xander Davis after a line out catch and drive.

This coming Saturday 9th April, Avon are holding their Old Players Reunion and VIPs Buffet whilst the 1st team host Minehead Barbarians and the 2nd team entertain Frome. All supporters, old and new players are welcome to come along to enjoy the hospitality and camaraderie.