Bridgwater & Albion 8pts
Drybrook 37pts
After the champagne and caviar performance against Bideford the week before this encounter with Bridgwater was more of a brown ale and pork pie affair.
Bridgwater, one feels are still smarting from the hangover of once being a major force in Somerset rugby, and now are having to entertain the idea of mixing it with the likes of Drybrook, and not liking it one bit.
The atmosphere at their impressive College Way Stadium is rather foreboding and the grey overcast conditions did not help to lift the mood.
Drybrook, however, were in no mood to let any of this detract from their aim of securing victory for the first time at this venue and started the game strongly and after only three minutes Stevenson had nudged them ahead with a well struck penalty.
From the restart Drybrook failed to exit cleanly and were penalised at the ruck for not releasing.
Stuart Heal playing his one hundredth game for Bridgwater stepped up to cancel out Drybrooks early advantage.
Not all was as slick as the previous week, but the visitors continued to play their expansive rugby and on ten minutes Harry Howard found himself in the clear, after some good work by
.
Large in the centre, to race in for Drybrooks first try of the day.
The home side seemed content to try and slow everything down rather than chance their arm at anything to daring and it was down to Mitch Hale, who once again showed his power,to burst through some despairing tackles and touch down between the posts for Stevenson to convert.
The game then developed into something of a stalemate as the home teams dogged defence, the visitor’s unforced errors, and the ref’s interpretations of the laws caused frustration in both camps.
This came to a head when the home teams blindside Shaun Mahoney was shown a red card following a rather unnecessary act of foul play after he had made a good tackle on Danny Price, to leave his team a player down for the remainder of the game.
Drybrook settled and took full advantage of their numerical supremacy to run in another two tries before the break.
Rhys Gardner the Drybrook full back touched down after the backs had created an opportunity on the blindside, with Stevenson adding the conversion. Two minutes later the ever consistent Will Greenway took advantage of some powerful forward driving to cross the
line for Drybrooks bonus point and take the half time score to twenty seven points to three in advantage of the visitors.
The Bridgwater coach had instilled some steel into his team at the break, and no matter how they huffed and puffed, Drybrook found it increasingly difficult to break down the resilient rear guard action of the Bridgwater team.
Sam Peaper capped a fine display by breaking free of the shackles on fifty seven minutes to add to his impressive try scoring tally this season, to take Drybrook into a comfortable thirty point lead
Next the Bridgwater lock forward Aaron Kelly a new signing from Teignmouth forced his way over to cross for a consolation score for the home team.
In the final minutes it was Drybrook who sealed their win with a good individual effort from the hard working Joe Tingle to take the final score to thirty seven points to eight.
Drybrook have a week off next Saturday and will resume on the twenty first with a home game against last year’s runners up Clevedon.
Drybrook 1st XV Squad: R.Gardner, H.Howard, D.Price, B.Large, (capt), M.Baldwin, T.Stevenson, B.George, L.Boon, A.Howells, M.Hale, L.Mullane, W.Greenway, S.Peaper, J.Tingle, M.Bourne, E.Beatie, C.Guest, G.Nott.
