Western Counties N

Wellington 15 Burnham-on-Sea 14

ON a sunny day which felt like the first day of spring, Wellington’s improved form continued against fifth-placed Burnham-on-Sea, writes Mike Brewer.

Kicking off up the hill into a surprisingly strong breeze, Wellington applied the early pressure but were unable to turn this into points.

After 20 minutes, Burnham managed to get outside the Wellington defence on the far wing and quick hands saw them go over for the opening score by Jordan Paul. He added the extras to his own try.

From the restart, Wellington looked fairly comfortable with the ball in midfield.

They were turned over at a ruck but, when Burnham went to the top side again, Wellington defenders outnumbered the Burnham attack.

Wellington were, however, caught defending too narrow and, once again, the Burnham speedsters got to the outside, where eventually Beau Dickens dotted down out wide.

When Paul added the extras, Wellington were looking down the barrel. But there is a growing maturity about this side, however, and they didn’t panic.

The scrum, with Lee Waddon, Joe Dyke and the impressive Harry Tredwin in the front row getting the better of their counterparts, proved a useful platform as they worked their way back into the Burnham 22.

When a promising move was stopped by a deliberate knock-down, the culprit saw yellow and Matt Parsons was presented with the easiest of penalty kicks.

His conversion of it was the last kick of the half, and Wellington went in 14-3 down.

Showing more discipline in the second half, the penalty count against Wellington went right down, which meant they were able to keep field position in the visitors’ half.

After 50 minutes, Welly went through several phases of quick possession and George Hooper took a lovely line on the inside shoulder of Parsons.

He then out-sprinted the cover defence to score close to the posts. Parsons added the extras to put Wellington right back in it.

By now, all the rugby was being played in Burnham’s half.

They tried to run the ball out of trouble but were smashed back time and again by Wellington’s aggressive defence.

When, on 65 minutes, Wellington were awarded a penalty it was kicked into clubhouse corner. Micky Norman rose high to take the ball which was quickly moved to the back of the maul to Liam Phillips, who had an outstanding match making many yards carrying.

On this occasion he stayed latched on to the pack which drove Burnham back and Phillips was able to dive over for the try.

The missed conversion meant it was going to be a really tight finish.

With three minutes left, Wellington conceded a penalty in a very kickable position which, if converted, would almost certainly have won the game for the visitors.

The large crowd, however, drew a collective sigh of relief as it drifted wide and the final whistle followed shortly after