RUGBY: Minehead Barbarians take 11th straight win by beating Somerset One leaders Bristol Barbarians

MINEHEAD’s 1st XV made it 11 wins in a row on Saturday when they overcame leaders Bristol Barbarians in what could be a key result.

With several players missing from the previous week’s fixture due to injury, illness and work commitments, Minehead had to make a number of changes to the squad who were involved in the big win against Wyvern last week.

Minehead kicked off heading up the slope on a wet and heavy pitch and the tempo of the first ten minutes was frantic with the home side using their big number 8 as their main ball carrier.

It was a case of David v Goliath with Bristol Barbarians outsizing the small Minehead team in all positions, but the visitors stuck to their game plan and were first on the scoreboard just after the ten-minute mark.

Leigh Parker and Harry Simms did the legwork before the latter offloaded to Justin Harris who snuck in just to the left of the uprights.

Kyle Lewis added the extras to give Minehead the perfect start.

Bristol Barbarians were under pressure with ball in hand throughout the 80 minutes and gave away a number of penalties.

Ross Bradley at fly-half was accurate with his kicking out of hand all afternoon while Josh Parker, Dave Farmer and Chris James linked well and each had fine games.

A penalty by Lewis then increased Minehead’s advantage to 10-0 at half-time, and they returned to the field determined to defend their hard-earned lead.

The home side got off the mark when they were awarded a penalty on 55 minutes but Minehead regrouped and exposed the narrow blindside where Henson, Baker and Swann ran hard lines to keep the Minehead pack moving forward.

Bradley kicked a penalty to the corner for the lineout which captain Willes secured and Minehead were stopped just short.

Minehead continued to set about stretching their advantage, and they earned themselves some breathing space when Harris picked up and dived over from short range for his second try.

Another penalty from Lewis added to the tally as Minehead kept the ball in hand and played clean rugby.

The final whistle was greeted with a mixture of relief and satisfaction by the visitors, who left the home side and their supporters silenced.

***

Frampton Cotterell Under-18s 0, Minehead Barbarians Under-18s 15

DESPITE looking very rusty in the early stages of this game, not having played for several weeks, the Minehead team pushed through to victory against a much-improved Frampton side.

The Barbarians started slowly and the forwards were a little slow to react.

On occasions, Frampton made clean breaks towards the Minehead line but some fine cover defence kept them out.

Pring and Day showed up well in defence and the set-pieces worked well, with Bazley and Morris-Edwards taking good ball from Norman, and Gallagher doing well on his first game back after injury.

The game remained scoreless until near the end of the half, when a fine penalty kick was struck by Lynch.

The second half saw the team respond quicker and the match changed when Morris-Edwards picked off a loose ball, linked with Bullard who gave a scoring pass to Willis who crossed for the try.

As time ran out in the game, Lynch produced a delicate chip-and-chase to go in under the posts and convert.

Man of match was full-back Jacob Gower, who put in an excellent performance.

Minehead travel to Taunton in the County Cup on Saturday (ko noon).

***

South Molton 10, Minehead Under-13s/14s 25

MINEHEAD Barbarians travelled to South Molton with a mixed 13s-14s team.

The under-13s players started the game but were on the back foot as the more physical South Molton players dominated the breakdown, forcing them off the ball.

From a scrum on the 10 metre line, South Molton drove Minehead off the ball and broke away to squeeze over in the corner.

This score galvanised Minehead who had several promising attacks but, with a scrum five awarded to the opposition they failed to close and tackle the inside centre who broke free, ran the full length of the pitch and scored.

At 10-0 down, Minehead made some changes and Chris Barrett cleared the ball from a ruck, found Lawrence Sandy who fed on to Tom Milliship, who beat the cover defenders to score.

Some excellent interplay then kept the ball alive and Chris Barrett was put into space, where he fended the last defender to score. The half finished 10-10.

After the break, good hands and quick popping off the floor overwhelmed the South Molton defence and William Walsh was a grateful recipient sprinting clear to score.

Barrett was the next to go over after throwing an audacious dummy to create a gap and run through.

Quick ruck ball was then fed to Rio Howard who dived over for the final score to Minehead of 25-10.

It was good to see the under 14 team play as a group in the second half and with some additional players they would be able to play more fixtures.

Man of the match was Brandon Williams; Man of Steel, Seb Chip; Player for Under-14s Tom Milliship.

Minehead: Oliver Bisset, Oliver Bretherton, Ethan Carr, Seb Chip, Nathaniel Coates, Josh Govier, Reece Hollingsworth, Jack Lewis, Jude Murray, Lawrence Sandy, Ben Summersgill, Isaac Sweetland, Luke Westcott, Jacob Whittaker, Nicholas Winzer, Rio Howard, Josh Jenkins, Cameron Jenkins, Chris Barrett, Will Walsh, Oliver Heathfield, James Boulton, Oscar Binnie, Tom Milliship.