WELLS 29 WINSCOMBE 11

Played in ideal conditions for the city side they produced one of the best performances for several weeks as they ran in 5 tries to defeat local rivals and league leaders Winscombe.

At times they played some scintillating rugby with the forwards and backs combining to produce 15 man rugby.

Leading the way was winger Lewis O Meara who scored two tries to take his tally to over 20 for the season.

The visitors won the toss and elected to play up the slope in the first half, Wells though were quickly into their stride and forced their opponents back.  Within the first five minutes Wells had opened the scoring when quick off the top ball from line out was sped along the line for winger O Meara to step inside his opposite man to open the scoring.  Jake White just failed with the conversion as the ball went to the right of the post.  Five minutes later with their first foray into the Wells half Winscombe full back Owen Howells slotted a penalty over to reduce the score to 5 – 3 but that proved to be Winscombe’s only points of the half.  Wells with the much smaller pack were content to move the ball and once they had eliminated the threat of the inside pass from the Winsombe pack they prevented the visitors from gaining any ascendancy.  In the fifteenth minute  O Meara added his second try with White again narrowly failing with the conversion.

Aaron Cook moved to inside centre was having an excellent game using his distribution skills to good effect.  One glorious pass resulted in full back Chris Saunders adding the third try of the half.   A miss pass from Cook to Saunders coming into the line created a gaping hole in the Winscombe defence.  Saunders with his searing pace was quick to exploit and he rounded his opposite man with consummate ease.  Again the conversion was missed and at the interval Wells were 15 3 to the good.

After the break Winscombe had their best period of the match as they pushed for a score, but some resolute defence from the home side prevented all put a penalty from Howells.  Winscombe began to get frustrated with some of the decisions resulting Andy Gunningham being sent to the sin bin for ten minutes.  This enabled Wells to relieve the pressure with the trusty boot of Cook.  Another penalty to Wells and now they were 15 metres from the Winscombe try line, first a catch and drive from the line out before a sniping break from scrum half Jake Knight to set up another drive a few metres away from try line.  The wizened old head of Rich Hickman got his hands on the ball before he peeled away from the maul side stepped the covering defender before diving over the line for Wells’ fourth try.  Cook added the conversion to give Wells a comfortable lead.

Returning to the field with ten minutes to go Gunningham drove over for a consolation try for Winscombe before Wells sealed their victory when a strike against head enabled the Wells backs another opportunity to run at the opposition.  Excellent hands and a chip and chase resulted White squeezing over in the corner for the final try which Cook nonchantly converted from the touchline to record a 29 11 victory.