Weston United 9 - Gordano 22

A match that was expected to contain fireworks did so for many of the wrong reasons.

Gordano started slowly as Weston played with the elements on their backs and put together some promising plays to put Gordano under pressure early on. It was against the initial run of play however that Gordano scored first - Chris Worgan at first receiver avoided the onrushing defence in typical slow motion fashion stepping 2 before offloading out the tackle, a series of bursts and offloads resulted in scrum half Kaine Southey having the pace to get over the line for a 60m counter attack score.

Weston continued to put phases together and managed to create several overlap opportunities but were unable to convert their chances. They did take the lead on 11 minutes after a pair of penalties from their young fly half. 10 minutes before the break Gordano got their noses back in front after second row Tom Arnall muscled his way through 2 defenders for his 5th try of the season - Joe Rowsell adding the conversion for a 9-12 half time lead.

The second half Gordano intended to keep hold of the ball and start to stretch the Weston team, this was evident after only a minute when stand out second row Tom Arnall beat the defensive line again, offloading to centre Owen Abbot who dotted down under the posts, conversion again by Rowsell. The attacking intent was somewhat hindered soon after however by a series of refereeing decisions which could well have taken the game out of Gordanos hands. The first was for Captain Fred Young, Yellow carded for a legal move following a Weston lineout which never became a Maul. 2 minutes later vice captain Tom Arnall was also shown a yellow for collapsing a maul despite appearing to be the first man in thus making it a tackle. Going down to 13 men away from home against a team who have averaged over 20 points a game only managed to galvanise the Gordano players. Despite spending huge amounts of the second half camped on their own line and receiving another yellow card for a legal manoeuvre on 54 minutes Gordano did not concede a single point in the second half, they regular won scrum ball against the head and made tackle after tackle to keep the home side out. The win was confirmed on 78 minutes by a Rowsell penalty for a 9-22 final score.

It showed great character from the Gordano team to come away from a tough fixture with 4 points, at no point did they lose their heads (those on the touchline may have done) and they continue to improve and push themselves every week.