Winscombe gained revenge over Weston United for two defeats last season and it was also a pleasing send-off for departing coach Brian Corcoran.

Winscombe 32 pts

Weston United 13 pts

DEFEATS home and away to Weston cost Winscombe promotion last season, so a comfortable win provided a pleasing send-off for departing coach Brian Corcoran and influential centre Owen Howell.

Steve Pugh opened the scoring with a penalty after good work by Howell and Matt Truscott. Howell, Jim Merryfield and Rhys Lewis all made good runs, but Weston equalised against the run of play.

Fine play from Stuart Warren, Will Thomas, Aled Corcoran and Howell kept Weston on the back foot, until Callum Stewart’s break saw him offload to Warren to touch down, converted by Pugh.

The first attack after the restart came from Winscombe, but the touchline intervened. Weston were awarded a penalty at the line-out and scored a fine converted try to close the gap to 8-15.

Stewart responded for Winscombe by evading four tacklers on the counter before giving the perfect pass to Pugh, who sent Lewis over in the corner, only for the ball to be dropped.

Winscombe kept up the pressure with Howell twice driving to within metres of the line and then a five metre scrummage was held up just short. They eventually crossed the line when a quickly taken penalty put Stewart over, converted by Pugh.

Powerful work at the maul by Adam Scrase resulted in a Winscombe put-in on the visitors’ 22. Truscott, now playing at No 8, picked up to give Lewis Podpadec space to send Pugh over to seal the bonus point.

Weston’s left wing again demonstrated his pace carving through the defence to send his hooker over under the posts, with the conversion attempt being charged down. Winscombe replied by pushing their opponents 10 metres back at a scrum, but failed to use the possession and were penalised twice in quick succession.

With four minutes to play, Stewart made another incisive run on the counter and Truscott put Andy Ball over for the fifth try.

The game ended with young winger Lewis bringing down a Weston lock, the biggest player on the pitch, as he broke free.