HORNETS Colts had a scare against lowly-placed Minehead, winning 22-12 after being 12-0 down after five minutes.

Hornets Colts 22 pts

Minehead Barbarian Colts 12 pts

HORNETS Colts had a scare against lowly-placed Minehead, winning 22-12 after being 12-0 down after five minutes

Within the first minute, the Minehead outside centre powered through the Hornets defence to score and within minutes he had scored again with a repeat try, this time converted.

Hornets did not panic and started to work out where the threats were coming from. The forwards started to get parity with their larger opponents.

Hornets’ response came from open play with two tries from Greg White, both after full-back Tom Bradley had fielded Minehead kicks before making good ground to put White in space on the right.

Just before half-time, Hornets managed to put some continuity together, Josh Hallet took a tap penalty, which led to Sam Holland driving close to the line before offloading to Rich Hill to score. Reece Watson made it 17-12 at the halfway mark.

Efforts to score the decisive try were thwarted by strong Minehead defence. It was not until eight minutes from time that Hornets got their fourth bonus point try and put the result beyond doubt.

From a Minehead scrum on their 22, hooker Jake Toman took his fourth strike against the head, scrum-half Collins fed Bradley who broke blind and outstripped the defence to score.

After a rocky start, the players responded, with Josh Hallett playing well at second row to be named the AGM Services man of the match.

Credit must also go to Sam Holland and to the many under-17s who stepped up including young Kris Gardiner.

The next Colts match is the national cup derby against Yatton on the November 20.