Minehead Barbarians head coach Andrew Stevens says he is delighted with the commitment and passion shown by his players in Saturday’s 23pts-23 draw with league leaders Weston hornets. The Babas came from behind to snatch a draw with a late try against a side who hadn’t previously dropped points in the league and Stevens said he was ‘delighted.

He said: “It’s testimony to the team effort that was on display that I couldn’t pick a man of the match on Saturday. I thought everyone was superb and the commitment and belief shown was everything I could have asked for and more.”

Minehead now lie third in the league having drawn with both Chard and hornets, the two teams above them.

That leaves Minehead in exactly the position they hoped to be at the start of the year. Stevens said: “We’ll be very happy if we’re third at the end of the season, since Hornets and Chard will both be very hard teams to beat. To be honest, after last season we’re very much enjoying this one, it makes a pleasing change to be winning games regularly.

This Saturday Stevens takes his side to second from bottom Imperial in Bristol. He told the Gazette: “We’re looking at the game as a potential banana skin. We’ve just drawn with the top side and now face one of the poorer sides in the league and it would be easy to get complacent.

“Our training has been disrupted because of the weather - we trained indoors on tuesday but hope to get on the pitch tonight (Thursday) – and we’re slightly under strength.”

Jack Claydon and Ryan Lewis will miss Saturday’s clash at Imperial with injury while James Baker, who is also carrying a knock, will sit on the bench and Richard Henson is unavailable through work.

Stevens said: “The most important thing on Saturday will be getting our mental attitude right. If we can do that then everything else should fall into place.”