Winscombe win in France

WINSCOMBE Under-15s travelled to play RC Bagnolet as part of their Paris tour.

The visitors started slowly, but defended well with Billy Mullin and Charlie Wannaton to the fore. They took the lead when Huw Richardson touched down after good work by Sam Dearsley and Josh Daly.

Solid tackling from Sam Hartshorne and man of-the match Brandon Harvey saw the hosts held at bay. The line-out continued to work well, with Jonny Lane winning regular ball on the opposition throw.

Winscombe scored again when Ben Palmer released Toby Sims to touch down just before the break.

Sam Rees opened the scoring in the second half when he gathered a loose ball and scored under the posts. After a turnover, Kieran Westcott joined the line from full-back and ran through to score.

More fine defence secured a penalty in Winscombe’s own 22 and Darren Atkins, spotting a gap deep in their opponent’s territory, kicked long. Rees beat the defence, collected the ball and scored his second and the match’s final try.

Winscombe would like to extend their thanks to Bagnolet for hosting them, and a match that, while physical, was much closer than the final 29-0 scoreline suggested.

HORNETS Under-10s hosted touring side Telford Hornets under floodlights.

In the first game, the first half was tight and Hornets’ forwards Lloyd Chudley and Harry McFarling won most of the scrums to help win possession. There was also excellent tackling by Sam Hughes and Keelan Hodges-Swales to stop Telford getting near the try line.

Hornets were unlucky with both Lawrence Pilgrim and Chudley stopped just short of the try line. But as the game progressed, Hornets passing improved and they started to make some telling.

Alex Leeks was involved in a lot of the passages and Reef Morton provided the battering ram and Hornets ran out 6-1 winners. Tries were scored by Tom Read (3), Tim Morris (2) and Morton.

The second game was also nearly all Hornets as they grouped well to tackle a giant Telford player. This game was played with more width and the wingers became involved.

Reeve Bailey, Sam Hughes and debut player Milly Bamfield all made telling runs and were unlucky not to touch down, but Hornets played one of their best games all season and ran out 7-0 winners.

Tries were shared between Reeve (2), Lawrence (2), Alex, Keelan and Sam.

The Under-16s warmed up for Sunday’s cup final by running in six tries against Taunton.

Connor Davidson opened the scoring to touch down at the posts with Adam Francis adding the extras. Andrew Wheller extended Hornets lead when his pace and power proved too much for several Taunton defenders and his try was converted by Davidson.

Taunton scored a fine try of their own, before half-back Conor Littlewood scored a try from a scrum, that was again converted by Davidson to make the score 21-5 half-time.

After the break, Taunton struck first with a converted try, but Hornets soon responded with another try by Wheller. Taunton scored their third try before Sam Lewis hit the line at pace from a tap penalty to ghost through and score at the posts, Littlewood converted.

Flanker Joe Howe then capped a fine performance with Hornets final try after a 30 metre sprint to the line. Francis added the conversion to finish the scoring for the day.

Littlewood, Howe and Ben Reseigh all had outstanding games for Hornets, but Lewis Brake was awarded man of the match.

The Under-16s take on Walcot in the final of the Somerset Cup at Bridgwater on Sunday (3pm).

With the mini festival of rugby on Saturday, the Under-6s held their final training session of the season.

Since the youngest squad within Hornets officially formed in January, which coincided with the club’s 50th anniversary year, numbers have steadily grown with weekly attendance now in excess of 20 players training and nearly 50 children, aged between three and six-years-old, have been introduced to rugby throughout the season.

Training will resume on the September 2. Any child in Year 1 or below interested in having fun and getting muddy, should check the Hornets Under-6 website (http://bit.ly/HornetsU6) for details and for Year 2 children, the Under-7 (http://bit.ly/HornetsU7) website.

The Under-8s entertained Ross in sunny conditions. There was a good performance from all the players as the game ended in a 5-5 draw. James top scored with three tries.

The second game was also played at a fast pace, with everyone competing well, the game again ending in a draw, this time 4-4.

Team: Robson, Roman, Louis, Andon, Charley, Thomas, Daniel C, Daniel R, Alfie, Cara, James, Alexander, Lewis and Sam.

HORNETS RFC will be holding their annual mini rugby festival on Saturday.

The first games start at 10.30am with the finals expected to take place about 3pm.

There are 60 teams taking part in this year’s festival, involving in excess of 900 players ranging from six to 12-years-old.

They have attracted clubs from as far afield as East Midlands and West Midlands across to Swindon, up to London down to Cornwall and across the water from Wales.

Following the rugby, entertainment for the children is being put on by Bristol Rugby Academy, while the parents and visitors can enjoy the barbecue and other refreshments.

If your child is interested in playing rugby next season, please feel free to bring them along to see the various age groups in action.

A FABULOUS day saw Yatton host touring Aberdare for two great games of running rugby that were a pleasure to watch.

In truth, Aberdare were the better team, but Yatton never gave up and both teams played some tremendous rugby.

The first game saw Yatton start well with strong running and good defensive work and the score at half time was 3-1 to Yatton. After the break, Aberdare came back strongly and with three sets of seven defensive tags to their credit, they held off Yatton to take the game 6-3.

In the second match, Aberdare mixed up their plays that Yatton struggled to deal with. At the break Aberdare were 6-2 up and by the final whistle it became 10-3.

Yatton try scorers were: Ben Clarke (3), Matthew Bailey, Matthew Chapman and Cameron Fogg.