Western Counties (W): Hayle 42, Minehead Barbarians 7.

HAYLE produced an impressive performance at home after being embarrased by Minehead Barbarians at Ellicombe earlier in the season.

However, the fact that three of Minehead's front line players were out of the game after only five minutes had a bearing on the result.

Firstly Stewart Ford aggrevated an ankle injury in the pre-match warm up, then his brother Andrew suffered a torn calf muscle. And finally scrum-half Martin Cook recieved a severe blow to the hip which ended his involvement in the game.

Despite these setbacks, the first half was quite even, an early penalty to Hayle cancelled out by an outstanding try from Minehead.

Richard Maddock, Minehead's hooker, who had been pressed into service at scrum-half, whipped the ball away and Waterman entered the backline at pace. His burst took him 50 metres up field, when caught he slipped the ball to Westcott who scored under the posts. Neyens converted.

The match had a simple theme. The Barbarians tried to move the ball away and Hayle kept it tight with their forwards setting up short drives, and rolling mauls.

The pressure from Hayle resulted in a try before half-time when a breakaway was stopped short of the Minehead line but the referee judged the defence illegal. It was no surprise that a penalty was awarded, but the ref, in fact gave a penalty try to the home side, which seemed harsh.

Only three points down at half time, the Barbarians were still in the game despite the forced changes. Maddock had to fill in at scrum-half, Lewis moved to the centre and Waterman shifted to full-back.

The second half was undoubtably Hayle's as Minehead missed a couple of early tackles, which gave easy ground to a heavy home pack in rampant mood.

There was no lack of effort from the Minehead players, but the changes had affected their defensive organisation, and they started to conceed tries to an effecient home team.

There was some small relief for Minehead when a Hayle prop was sent off - he received a yellow card for a punch and an almost immediate second for talking back to the referee.

But the match ended as a convincing win for the Cornish side, who now face a play-off to try and join Barnstaple in promotion.

It was very heartening for the Barbarians players to see so many of their supporters at the ground, in fact they almost matched the numbers cheering on Hayle.