Drybrook 35pts
Clevedon 5pts
With storm Brian blowing a hoolie across the Mannings and big Clevedon pack trundling around the pitch, this was never going to be a thing of beauty.
From the kick off Drybrook were penalised for not releasing at the ruck and the Clevedon standoff took advantage of the wind to place his kick a couple of metres from the Drybrook line. The resulting catch and drive saw the Clevedon pack go over for the first score after only two minutes of play.
The Drybrook team, to their credit came straight back and in a reverse of the Clevedon try Mitch Hale took matters into his own hands at the back of the driving maul and burst away to crash over. Treherne handled the tricky wind well to add the conversion and Drybrook were two points in front with only seven minutes on the clock.
Anyone who was expecting this to turn into a high scoring try fest was to be bitterly disappointed.
The rain was now torrential and time again the ball was lost in contact or kicked out on the full in a first half littered by errors of judgement and mistakes due to the inclement conditions.
The Clevedon team who have only tasted the delight of victory once this season were beginning to revel in the conditions and their spoiling tactics and strong scrummage were
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frustrating a Drybrook team struggling to play the game they wanted to.
The half time whistle came almost as a relief to the Drybrook side, who were able to reassess their tactics and with the weather thankfully beginning to improve the second half got underway.
Drybrook took the game to the opposition with some excellent pick and drives led by Tingle and Beatie with the rest of the forwards in close support. After a series of such moves it was not long before Will Greenway crossed for the first score of the second period and with the trusty boot of Treherne converting Drybrook moved into a fourteen points to five lead.
The Clevedon team were finding it hard to make any headway, with big hits coming in from Peaper, Tingle and Hale, they found themselves constantly under pressure and from a turnover on their twenty two, Sam Peaper took advantage to break away for a good score that once again Teherne converted, to leave Drybrook needing just one more try for the bonus point.
To their credit Clevedon refused to lie down and continued to frustrate Drybrook, until a lovely break by Ben large made the space for the supporting Ben George to take the pass and cross the line to take Drybrook into an unassailable lead. Treherne, whose kicking this
season has been exemplary, once again added the extras.
With ten minutes left in the game Drybrook were at last in full control and a good carry by man of the match Joe Tingle, led to quick ball being moved out to pacey replacement Swannack, who took play into the oppositions twenty two. Mitch Bourne having another fine afternoon broke free from the ruck before sending the ball across the line where good hands by Large and Mullane put Tingle in space to draw in the opposition before passing to Price, who has been a revelation in the centre this season, to go in for the final try of the afternoon. There was never any doubt that Treherne would kick the conversion to complete anther perfect afternoon with the boot.
Not all games are going to be won playing beautiful rugby, some wins have to be hard earned and this was one of those occasions.
After playing out the final few minutes Drybrook had won a hard fought battle in difficult conditions to record another bonus point win to keep them second in the league.
Drybrook XV: T.Treherne, O.Moore, H.Howard, D.Price, M.Baldwin, B.Large, B.George, L.Boon, A.Howells, M.Hale, W.Greenway, L.Mullane, S.Peaper,J.Tingle, M.Bourne
Replacements: E.Beatie, C.Guest, P.Swannack.
