Taunton Warriors 94 Hornets 2nd XV 5

It is very difficult to write a report when one side was so completely dominant, however at the beginning of the game Taunton were extremely wary of their opposition.  With Taine Benson injured and no other second rows available Oliver Wrelton and James Brown, two backrow forwards,  stepped into the breach.  It was a delight when we saw in the first scrum the larger pack from Hornet’s go backwards.  Hornets had good possession for the first three minutes and it was only some good defence by the Taunton backrow which kept them at bay. It was therefore no surprise that when Taunton were awarded a penalty after only four minutes they opted to kick at goal.  The kick was successful by Oscar Stewart and Taunton had a 3-point lead.  After just 7 minutes Oliver Wrelton went over on his ankle and had to be assisted off the pitch.  The side rearranging saw Josh Court (Bob), who is normally a prop come in at hooker and Brad Harding the hooker go into the second row.  This made no difference to the domination the pack was starting to have, for within one minute of this, Ben Fenton had shown his class to go over for a try.  Some tremendous ball carrying by Brad Harding put Hornets on the back foot and he was rewarded when he used his power and strength to go in for the second try.  Just three minutes later and Oscar Stewart showed his skills and power in the centre to score the third try which he converted himself to give Taunton a 20-point to nothing lead.  The fourth and bonus point try, came from Connor Banks, playing on the wing who showed just how quick he is with the ball in hand.  Hornets then had a ‘purple patch’ and showed their pace outside of the scrum if they had the ball and were rewarded with a try by their very speedy winger Keiran Pamayi.  Thoughts came as to whether Hornets were they about to make a comeback.  These were quickly dispelled when Broady Sheach, who had an outstanding game went in for try number 5 which Oscar converted.  The Hornets defence had little to stop the direct running of the Taunton backrow and when Hornets did get the ball, they were very aware of the ferocity of the tackles from that same back row, resulting in Hornets knocking on or losing the ball.  However, they stood firm for the last 14minutes of the half and conceded no more tries.

The second half saw Taunton introduce Jack Connor to the wing and on only his second touch of the ball he made one of his elusive runs, breaking the Hornets defence before being hauled down just inches short of the Hornets try line.  Sol Moody, like all good number eights, was in support to score the first of his three tries of the afternoon.  Sol also scored the next try before we saw Connor Banks, who was now playing at outside half, because of an injury to Harrison Friday, score the first of his three consecutive tries, in an 11-minute period, giving him a total of four for the afternoon.  This by now had taken Taunton to 63points and seemingly taken the heart out of Hornets, a number of whom did not even go back behind the posts for the conversion.  The last ten minutes saw Sol Moody go in for two more tries and Will De Boehmler taking balls from the kick off and running three quarters of the pitch for two tries.  The last try saw Sol Moody who when over the line and could have scored, pass back to Jack Connor for him to score the last of Taunton’s 15 tries of the afternoon.

In conclusion we saw players with ability and potential which must be reassuring for the future of the Club.  We also saw these player who all aspire to being first team players committing to the club in whatever team, and many of them will make it. We also saw how John Wrelton and Brett Harvey are the driving force and induce a really good atmosphere in the team.  We wish them well on Friday night when they play Weston at Weston, kick off 7.30pm where we hope we will get as many as possible of you along to that game.  There next Home game is against St Bernadettes Old Boys on Saturday 14^th October 3pm kick off.  Taunton Warriors are now sitting top of their league.

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