First Team Draw In Devon

It's A Draw !

This was Clevedon's first trip to newly promoted Kingsbridge and with both sides committed to running rugby, defences were tested early on, but it was the Seasiders who took the lead after 10 minutes, with a fine drop goal from Kieran Hill.

Kingsbridge put Clevedon under pressure at the set-piece forcing the seasiders into making mistakes and a resulting penalty levelled the score 3-3. Kingsbridge then went further ahead with another penalty in front of the posts 6-3.

Kingsbridge were enjoying a good spell of possession but Clevedon's defence held firm and Aaron Rice and Rory Biggins gained some important turn-overs. It was from one of these turn-overs, on the half way line, that Clevedon were awarded a penalty, Kieran Hill duly converted to take Clevedon into half time all square 6-6.

Some strong words at half time saw Clevedon starting the half in determined fashion, keeping the ball tight and making good in roads in to the Kingsbridge defence. The pressure told and Clevedon moved into the lead with a penalty out wide from Kieran Hill, 6-9.

Clevedon were then unlucky to be reduced to 14 men when the referee brandished a red card to Harvey Russell for throwing a punch, unfortunately for Clevedon the referee had missed the Kingsbridge forward striking the first blow. A reshuffled pack resulted in disruption at scrum time which saw the hosts awarded a questionable penalty try, duly converted to take the score to 13-9, with 25 minutes remaining on the clock.

This seemed to spark 14 man Clevedon into action and lead by captain Owen Biggins, they launched an all out attack resulting in a fine chip through from Aaron Rice who then touched down for a fine try under the posts, converted by Kieran Hill, to take Clevedon into a 13-16 lead.

Kingsbridge managed to level the score with a penalty against the run of play, 16-16. The last 5 minutes of the game saw Clevedon camped in the Kingsbridge red zone and fine runs from Mike Taylor and Tom Thie severely tested the home defence, but time ran out and the final whistle blew leaving Clevedon ruing a slow start.

Head Coach Nick Hill commented 'On reflection, two points on an away trip to Devon isn't all that bad considering we played over 25 minutes with 14 men, and we were still on the coach for most of the first half. The lads showed tremendous spirit and we could have nicked it at the end'