Winscombe made a flying start at home to Minehead, scoring two tries in the first four minutes.

Winscombe 40 pts

Minehead 0 pts

WINSCOMBE got off to a flying start against Minehead with tries in the second and fourth minutes.

The first came from a strike against the head by Louis Hooper which was picked up by No 8 Will Thomas to give time and room to his half backs Lewis Podpadec and Jim Merryfield, who passed inside to Callum Stewart. He fed back out to his centres for James Flower to touch down unopposed. Steve Pugh added the conversion.

The second came as Minehead ran a kick back and Owen Howell’s tackle and turnover in midfield gave him the chance to throw a long pass out to Stewart, who crossed in the corner.

The next try came when a kick was fielded by Simon Thompson, he made good ground to set up a ruck and quick ball gave Howell the space to loop around Pugh for a neat try, which Pugh converted.

The home defence was well organised, but Minehead’s cause was also not helped by Chris Aske, Joe Ford and Stewart Warren stealing throw-ins.

Like the first, the second half started with a try within two minutes. After Matt Truscott had made good ground from the kick-off, some good driving play opened up the field for Truscott, Warren and Thomas to draw a penalty at the breakdown. Thomas took a catch at the back of the line-out and Thomson took the ball on the peel to charge 20 metres for a bonus point try. Pugh again added the conversion to take the score to 26-0.

The next try came when Howell made a break on halfway and good support running by Stewart, Podpadec, and Flower sent Warren over for a try, converted by Pugh.

Minehead got on the attack from the restart, but some sterling work in defence by Adam Scrase turned the tide and some good threequarter play swept Winscombe back into the visitors’ 22.

After a powerful scrimmage, the ball was quickly recycled and Thompson hit the gain-line to crash over for his second try of the afternoon, again converted by Pugh.

Minehead produced one final attack and a driving line-out maul, Scrase ripped the ball away to send Merryfield, Howell, Flower and Stewart on a sweeping move almost the length of the field, only for the final pass to be adjudged forward.