WITH a strong wind blowing from one end of the pitch to the other, Hornets knew that the conditions would make it play difficult.

WITH a strong wind blowing from one end of the pitch to the other, Hornets knew that the conditions would make it play difficult.

Taking advantage of indiscipline in the home ranks they took a quick penalty on the 22, it was passed through a couple of pairs of hands before Phil Hogarth crashed over to record the first try, which Paul Sheppard converted.

Ten minutes later and the visitors were back on the attack, this time a well orchestrated blindside move saw Sheppard cross for a try that he converted after good work by Biddle and Lloyd-Jones.

A line-out deep in Taunton territory was caught cleanly and driven over for Hogarth to claim a second against his former club and take top spot in the try scorers list.

With the side firing on all cylinders, it was only moments later that the bonus point was secured as the forwards again drove at the heart of the defence before releasing scrum-half Nick Francis on a mazy run from 45 metres to score in the corner for a half-time score of 24-0.

Unfortunately this was marred by the loss of Matt Vaughan to a head injury which saw him replaced by John Ferguson.

The second period was an exhibition of free-flowing rugby. With the wind now at their backs, Hornets started strongly and inside three minutes Lloyd-Jones rounded three defenders for the first of a brace of tries.

It was the forwards who supplied the next try as a scrum 10 yards out was driven to within a couple of metres for Greg Speller to pick up and run around the half-backs for a try under the posts that Sheppard converted.

The changes started to be made and Harry Nash, who had made a good impact on proceedings, was replaced by Neil Chenoweth.

Straight from the restart Hornets won quick ball and John Ferguson scythed through a gap and ran in unopposed for a try. More hard work by the Hornets pack got them into position for the eighth try. With the ball held up just short it was popped to hooker Sean Kent and he rammed over from a yard to celebrate his 50th cap.

Lloyd-Jones had taken over kicking duty now and slotted the conversion from close range. Making their final change, Greg Speller left the field to make way for Ross Cheeseborough.

With the visitors now in control, a move straight from the training paddock put Sheppard in for his second. This was followed up shortly after when Lloyd-Jones intercepted a pass in his own half to run in under the posts for his second, which he also converted.

Stu Vinnicombe then made a fantastic break to cross untouched and reclaim a share of the top try scorer tag, which he had surrendered to Hogarth earlier in the game.

In the closing minutes, Hornets grabbed two more tries when a quick penalty was taken, passed to Francis and saw him claim a second, Lloyd-Jones converting.

The resultant kick-off was then taken by Neil Chenoweth, passed to Sonny Haines, who completed a one-two with Hogarth before passing inside to Jamie Biddle for him to score his first try of the season. This was converted by Lloyd-Jones with the final kick of the game and marked an emphatic 79-0 victory.

The side will hope to continue their ruthless run of form in a local derby on Saturday when they welcome Winscombe to Hutton Moor Park on Saturday, kick-off is at 2.30pm.

Chard 3rd XV 0 pts

Hornets 3rd XV 10 pts

A GAME at Chard is always tough and this time was no exception, the Hornets arriving with a squad of 18, whereas the hosts had 22.

Led by Dave Jones, the forwards attacked the Chard defence and with Jones, Sam Baker and Sean Steadman getting over the gainline, the ball was moved wide for Greg White to touch down in the corner, the only score of the half.

The second half was much the same. Paul Brown made two try-saving tackles as Chard tried to break down Hornets’ superb defence. Chris Bloomfield on his return, scrummaged well alongside Howard Evans and James Gould.

The Hornets backs opened up the game when scrum-half Mark Harvey made some decisive breaks offloading well to the wingers and fly-half Joe Keating kept Chard out with some excellent kicking.

It was the forwards who made the second and final score of the day when Dave Geddes broke through to score.

Man of the match went to Sam Holland.