Western Counties N

Wellington 37 Stroud 0

TO coin a phrase from a mobile phone provider, and change it slightly - ‘the future’s bright; the future’s Red and Black’.

Wellington faced a Stroud side third in the table on Saturday at the Athletics Field.

This ground has become something of a fortress in recent weeks, however, and this young Wellington team were no respectors of league positions.

Early pressure was exerted by the visitors but the home defence was, at times, nothing short of brutal as they hit back the opposition.

On 20 minutes, Wellington got into the visitors’ half for the first time and Will Brewer, standing in at ten for the injured Matt Parsons, broke through the home defence without anyone laying a hand on him for the opening score. Tom Hawkings added the extras.

Stroud came back at Wellington again but the hits put in by the whole Welly team - and by Joe Dyke and Harry Ramsay in particular - were nothing short of bone shaking.

The hosts got into the visitors’ 22 again and, when they conceded a penalty, Hawkings made no mistake.

With growing confidence, the back line started running terrific lines, with Ben Gamlin and Neville Pitman causing chaos in the visiting defence.

On the stroke of half-time a further penalty was stroked over by Hawkings to make it 13-0.

With the slope in the second half and the fact that Wellington are such a young side, expectations were high among the home support for an entertaining 40 minutes.

Hawkings slotted another penalty on 48 minutes with the hosts showing a killer instinct that has sometimes been missing this year.

On 55 minutes, Micky Norman picked up at the base and, showing skill and aggression as he had all afternoon, drove over the line.

Hawkings’ conversion meant Stroud were now facing a mountain to climb to claw their way back into the match.

The lineout, which functioned really well all afternoon, provided the base for the next try. An untidy knock back fell into the arms of Liam Phillips and, as he came around the corner, the space opened up in front of him to score under the posts.

The final try was a real treat. Micky Norman broke out of defence and fed Ben Williams.

He bumped his man before moving in field looking for support where he found George Hodgson steaming up the middle.

His pace took him around the last defender to score under the posts leaving Hawkings with the easiest of conversions.

To Stroud’s credit, they refused to lie down and turned down kickable penalties in an attempt to score a try.

The Wellington back division which, by now, contained no-one over the age of 21, refused to yield, however, and Stroud left pointless thanks to a real squad effort.

There will be a free buffet next Saturday before Wellington’s home game against Avon to thank all supporters for this season.

Everyone is welcome.