Yet Yatton always looked dangerous and showed a clinical edge to finish off their try scoring opportunities.

For much of the first half, Avon experienced the lion’s share of possession and territory but couldn’t convert their dominance into points in the face of some determined defence from their well-organised visitors. Three surging breaks from Xander Davis, Kiddie Sheikh and Escher le Duq came to nothing as they ran out of support. Although Avon had the edge up front in the set pieces, they couldn’t make the vital breakthrough and the half seemed to be petering out into a scoreless stalemate when Yatton suddenly exploited some missed tackles for their supporting prop to crash over for a converted try with the last play of the half.

To make matters worse, the referee decided an accidental Avon collision merited two players being substituted at half time due to potential head injuries and with Ollie Flight also having previously injured an ankle, Avon were left to reorganise and with no further replacements available for the rest of the match. To literally add insult to these injuries, Yatton added another converted try immediately after half time to leave Avon chasing the game.

With Guy Palmer making a solid debut in the centre, a sustained period of pressure from the Black and Ambers eventually brought its reward as clean line out possession from Dan Griffin was switched wide for winger Tai Harwood to score at the corner flag. Jonny Batchelor added the extras from the touchline to give Avon a glimmer of hope.

Yatton continued with their high-octane recycling game, quickly moving the ball wide at every opportunity to test the home defence and this approach paid dividends as they scored a penalty and then a try from a line out drive.

With the visitors impressive number 8, who had been outstanding throughout, yellow carded for killing the ball, Avon took advantage with several powerful 5 metre scrums before sucking in the defence and transferring the ball wide for Tai Harwood to add his second try but in the end, it was too little too late.

Scrum half Kiddie Sheikh was awarded Avon’s man-of-the-match with an all action display and they will seek to bounce back from this defeat with a visit to Imperial next week.