Weston Under-8s and Taunton managed to share the spoils over a range of games.

WESTON Under-8s played host to a strong Taunton team and shared the spoils over the range of the games.

The Weston Reds pushed their opponents close in each of their four games, losing two narrowly, drawing one and winning one.

Leon Beard was again the star with the ball score to a total of eight tries across the games, while Jack Hobbs undoubtedly scored the magical try of the day from his own half.

Ollie Dadds was awesome in defence, ably supported by Jack Groom, who showed his customary tenacity. Harvey Mount competed well, while Roo Beckett showed improvement.

Debutant Dan Golledge showed he will easily make the transition from the round ball game and capped a great first appearance with a great try.

Meanwhile, the Weston Blues similarly pushed their supposedly stronger opponents close, drawing three and losing only one of their four games.

The defence was led by Harry Wills, who led the tag count for the day. Similarly, Jayden Hood was strong in defence and Shaun Shergold gathered a plethora of great tags.

Sam Goodare led the try count for the team, showing while Fyn Simpson was not far behind, managing to score one with his tag belt around his knees. Dominic Hawkins and JJ Weall both had fine game.

The Under-13s travelled to North Petherton looking to continue their unbeaten start to the year.

Weston opted to swap positions for many of the players and they adjusted to this quickly as Kyron Pearce broke away and offloaded to Dom Marshall to score under the posts.

The theme continued as Weston dominated the first-half as Reef Morton and Marshall Hobbs both scored a try each. Strong running from Lewis Paterson saw him sprint 50 metres to score under the posts, before Pearce did the same, copied by Marshall on the stroke of half-time.

North Petherton came out stronger in the second half and were unlucky not to score, strong tackling from newcomers Andy Turner and Tom Flavin keeping them at bay.

However, it just wasn’t North Petherton’s day as poor defending allowed Pearce to break through for another two tries, with Harry Strutt adding one of his own. Dan Meadon added another to complete the rout.

With Patterson’s conversions added, the final score was 58-0 to Weston. Man of the match was awarded to the whole team to reflect an excellent all-round performance.

The Under-11s made the short journey to Clevedon and were involved in a close game.

The well-drilled Clevedon team started well and had Weston under pressure from the kick-off, but some good defensive work from Danny, Brett, Olly and Tom kept them at bay.

Good linking from forwards to backs saw Jayden, George and Sam make some hard yards and Weston soon found themselves on the score board with a well-worked try from Danny.

Weston again pushed forward with Jude, Riley and John making some great runs and this pressure turned into points with Jayden crossing the line. Clevedon came back strongly and again Weston had to dig deep. The final whistle went with the scores even at 10-10.

Man of the match this week went to Sam Crook for a fine display of forward pressure.

HORNETS Under-16s were knocked out of the Somerset Cup by Taunton at the quarter-final stage.

Hornets started well with Richardson, Bate and Francis linking well, but a lapse in concentration saw Taunton take the lead, soon followed by another try after some poor tackling.

In the second half, Hornets stepped up a gear and forced mistakes by Taunton. A kick by Humphris from inside his 22 was chased by Solomon and Holyday, aided by Constable and Holyday was free to touch down.

Although both sides played hard rugby for the rest of the game, there was no further scores and Hornets went out of the cup 19-5.

The Under-13s entertained Nailsea & Backwell at Worle School, due to a waterlogged Hornets pitch.

The visitors scored first with a slick move that was touched down in the corner, soon followed by a further try. Hornets hit back when the ball was passed to Sam, who skipped through several tackles to score an excellent try under the posts that was converted by Sol.

Another slick move saw Lawrence pass the ball to guest player Josh, who ended up with another try under the posts that Lewis converted for a 14-10 half-time lead. Jo Rutter had a fine game and a run up the line got close to scoring.

Nailsea took advantage of their large squad and the replacements brought on fresh legs on the difficult surface. Hornets learnt a lesson as a quickly taken penalty resulted in a try with most players facing the wrong way.

Nailsea scored two late tries to slightly flatter the scoreline. Ricky deserves a mention for his excellent tackles.

The Under-14s entertained St Brendans with a bare 15 players, as seven of the squad were on a school ski trip.

Due to the size of the normal squad, this was an ideal opportunity for all available players to play a whole game, albeit it different positions to normal.

The first-half was even, with the decision making by Hornets not their best. However, they were first to score through Oscar Browne, which was converted by Jos Edwards. St Brendans quickly followed with an unconverted try, before Quentin Querl scored a try on the stroke of half-time to give Hornets a 12-5 lead.

The second half saw Hornets give a much more disciplined performance. As a result, they ran in five unanswered tries. Browne got his second, Querl added two for his hat-trick and Rhys Clarke scored a brace to make the final score 39-5.