By Chris Heath.

Weston RFC showed plenty of heart but were left facing another heavy defeat after a 58-12 loss against Brixham in their final Regional 1 South West match before the Christmas break last Saturday.

The Seasiders attacking from the start only for the ball to be lost and hacked through for the opening try through Jamie Hext.

To their credit, Weston hit back almost immediately when a break by left-wing Joe Burgess after a scrum enabled a kick-through to be pounced upon by scrum-half Jack Press to reduce the arrears to two points. 

Weston then had a penalty, but the touch kick stayed in play and the visitors once again ran it back through soft defence to increase their lead when Nathan Reeves went over.

The Fishermen added to their lead with another two long-range efforts through Hext and Joel Ashworth.

Weston regrouped and ground their way to the visitors’ line only to concede a penalty a yard out from Ashworth. 

Brixham then had a yellow card given to George Weedon, but fly-half Ashworth went over and Weston were 27 points in arrears at half-time with the visitors having secured a try-scoring bonus point in the opening 20 minutes.

Things did not improve at the beginning of the second half as Weston worked hard to get to the opposition line, only for them to run out of the patience that had brought them there and lose the ball for the Fishermen to run the length of the field to increase 
their lead through Matt Crosscombe.

Andre Simonetti went over to increase Brixham's lead further before Weston scored another try when Archie Tilsley switched with replacement centre Huw Morgan after a scrum, and Tilsley added the conversion. 

Still, Brixham went on to score two more tries.

The first came from an attempt to push the visitors back over their line, only for Joe Webber to pounce on a loose ball to run the length of the field, after which they scored through Connor Doneathy's fine effort through a tiring and crestfallen defence to finish off the scoring.

The victory for the Fishermen sees them finish 2023 in fourth-placed, eight points behind new league leaders Devonport Services, while Weston are at the foot of the table, 10 points adrift of Matson who have two games in hand on the Seasiders.

Weston face Lydney, who ended the year in seventh place after a 38-15 home victory over Launceston, on January 6.