Hornets extended their winning run to 10 games with victory over Coney Hill.
HORNETS 48 pts
CONEY HILL 7 pts
HORNETS extended their winning run to 10 matches and in doing so rose to second place in South West Division 1.
Hornets returned from the Christmas break with a new-look team having been forced into various changes through injury, suspensions and unavailability. All those coming into the new look team gave a great account of themselves.
Special mention must go to Connor Littlewood making his debut and showing the step up from Colts to first team is possible if you are good enough, and also to Dexter Nettleton, Max Gaulton and Charlie Carter, who all put in what are probably their best performances for the first team.
Put alongside that a great performance from prop Chase and the coaching staff will be pleased with the afternoon’s work.
Coney Hill applied early pressure and Cornish was forced to kick clear. His kick took a slight touch from an opposition player which played all the Hornets team onside.
Alert to this, Kent caught the clearance on halfway and immediately passed to Chase, who set off for the line, but as the line approached he was chased down. His floated pass was unfortunately dropped as two players went for the same ball.
The first score came for Hornets slightly against the run of play. Cornish kicked to the corner and the defender was forced to carry the ball out. The line-out led to a driving maul with Littlewood and Gaulton moved the ball out to Joe Gadd, who gathered the ball up and was able to cross the line for a try. Gaulton converted for a 7-0 lead.
Coney Hill immediately responded with a converted try of their own. The home side attacked again and after a driving maul, Kent controlled possession to cross the line.
The next score was the first of two outstanding individual tries from Hornets’ youngsters. A scrum on halfway was controlled and Littlewood darted through a gap to break the first line of defence.
He sidestepped the next defender and his impressive pace took him away from the defence to score under the posts. Gaulton again converted for a 19-7 lead at half-time.
The second half saw Hornets and in particular their exciting backline take control of the game. Jones started proceedings with a surging run into the Coney Hill half. The ball was quickly recycled with Kinchant and Harris putting in impressive shifts, gained further ground before Chase moved the ball quickly to the backs, where Gaulton picked out Jones to score.
The next 10 minutes then belonged to Carter. His first try came from a break by Cornish. Everyone expected Cornish to go for the line, but instead he drew the last defender and put Carter clear to score.
Hornets immediately returned to the attack and after several phases, Carter was again on hand to apply the finishing touch and extend the lead to 38-7.
Carter saved the best to last. Picking the ball up inside his own half, he put in a mesmerising sidestep to glide through a small gap in the defence and sprinted clear of the defence to score Hornets’ seventh try and complete a memorable hat-trick.
There was still time for another score and Jones, who crashed over for his second try of the afternoon and brought the final score to 48-7.
With three difficult fixtures over the next three weeks, Hornets know the hard work is still ahead of them if they are to remain in contention for promotion to National League rugby.
On Saturday, they travel to North Petherton for the first of this series of difficult fixtures.
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