Minehead used their experience to secure a 34-10 victory against a younger Wivey side in front of a crowd of more than 200 the Somerset Premier yesterday.

Working up the hill in the first half, Minehead opened the scoring early in the game with a stolen line-out followed by a good drive from the Minehead pack.

A half break by centre Dan Richardson sucked in the Wivey defence to allow Martin Cook to feed Tom Bishop who stood up his man to give a clear run in for full back Kyle Lewis. The conversion attempt was missed.

For the next 20 minutes, Wivey enjoyed the majority of possession and tried all they could to break down the Minehead defence, but without success. Strong tackling from Jake Pound and Andy Ford forced the Wivey scrum half to kick to the corners in hope of a half chance.

The remainder of the second half remained tight, with the referee being in the spotlight, sending Ross Cox and Tom Bishop to the sin bin for a late tackle and interfering with play. Minehead kept their composure and continued to work hard as a team.

The forward pack in particular dominating the set piece allowing little chance for Wivey to convert the pressure into points.

It wasn’t until the dying minutes of the half that Wivey were awarded a penalty just outside the 22 and their number 10 stepped up to get the visitors on the board.

In the second half, Minehead’s forward pack continued to dominate a tired and much younger pack.

The front row of Claydon, Baker and Lewis ran hard to create space for the back line. It wasn’t long before Minehead scored their next try with a scrum won against the head and good vision from Sam White who ran 20 metres catching Wivey on the back foot.

Quick recycling and desperate defence from the visitors created a penalty which was kicked to the corner for a five metre line-out where a smart piece of play move allowed Baker to crash over in the corner and increase Minehead’s margin to seven points. The onversion attempt failed.

Minehead grew in confidence and continued to run the ball aggressively up the middle of the field.

Another good series of runs from Webber, Parker and Henson gave Ross Cox the opportunity to hold the defence in the centres and send a well-timed floating pass to Bishop on the wing who beat his man to score a try which the home side again failed to convert.

After 60 minutes Wivey were again chasing play when they lost the ball against the head in the scrum for a second time allowing the home side to create another platform for captain Ryan Lewis to run in at short range under the posts.

This time there was an easy conversion for Kyle Lewis leaving the score 22-3.

Now brimming with confidence, Minehead pushed hard and at times tried too hard giving passes that often didn’t make it to the intended player.

A handling mistake on the top touch gave the visitors full back a chance to run 50 metres down the pitch cutting inside the last man in defence and score under the posts. With the conversion successful the score with 15 minutes to go was 22-10.

Minehead responded well and kept possession of the ball, crucially allowing them to control the pace of the game.

With Langdon coming on into the centres, and with winger Ninnes in support on the wing, the two created a further strong piece of running rugby from another turnover scrum which gave Langdon a chance to crash over from short range to take the pressure off the home side.

With the final minutes approaching, it was Minehead who were to have the final say, with a text book piece of rugby.

From a set lineout, the ball was fed through the backs hands, drawing in the last man to give Tom Ninnis a clear run into the corner with Lewis again converting.

The result leaves Minehead in confident for this Saturday's fixture at Taunton and the return fixture against Wiveliscombe in January.

Despite a dominant forwards display, with a number of players featuring prominently, the Quay Inn man of the match award was given to fly-half Andy Ford.

Team: R.Lewis, J.Baker, T.Claydon, J. Webber, R.Cox, L.Parker, S.White, R.Henson, M.Cook, A.Ford, D.Rcihardson, J.Pound, T.Ninnis, T.Bishop, K Lewis. Subs – S. Langdon, W.Bridal.