Minehead Barbarians 38  Clevedon 12

ON a great day in the sun at Ellicombe, the Barbarians downed the league leaders with some sparkling rugby in front of a big home crowd.

They welcomed two new young Barbarians, Shalon Martins, and Mu-eed Fritz from South Africa to gain experience of Somerset rugby, and both made impressive debuts.

The win was based around outstanding defence in the first half, with utter commitment needed to keep the visitors at bay.

Clevedon’s heavy pack kept Minehead under pressure, but the play of Cox, Willes, and Huish met them head on, often stopping them in their tracks.

A slice of good fortune saw a loose pass from Clevedon gave Chinn a chance. The winger kicked on, won the chase to gather and score.

Clevedon struck back when after period of pressure, a penalty was taken quickly and their scrum-half dived over in the corner.

Clevedon continued to press but their backline was well marshalled by the home three-quarters, where Hole and Senior filled the centres robustly, and there was no way around the Minehead wings.

The visitors were well drilled and kept coming, which required frantic defence by Minehead. This excellent defence earned a penalty to relieve pressure, and led to a try!

From a lineout the ball went back untidily to ‘stand in scrum-half’ Day, but he spotted a gap, burst through and ran 60 metres to score with Gower converting.

Just before half-time Minehead lost Buckingham to a yellow card, and had to resist with 14 men. They did this manfully, until an attacking scrum allowed Clevedon to force over and equalise.

Halftime saw Martins come into the front row, with experienced Swann moving to tight head.

Almost from the kick-off Minehead scored. Quick ball moved via Gower, Hole, and Senior, to Chinn who burst around the tight gap on the touch line to race in.

With the Clevedon forwards still pressuring, Gower kicked long, and good chasing by Chinn and Fritz set up a chance for Day to win an attacking penalty. A burst from Hole allowed the home forwards to pick and drive, with Martins powering over to score.

More pressure from Clevedon needed a vital turnover by Willes. A super counter-attack by Fritz took Minehead close, and the visitors’ 9 was yellow carded for interference. Fitz soon scored a debut try as he finished off a tapped penalty. He added a second soon after when he put Chinn away, and took a return pass for the try.

This was the Barbarians’ best performance and result of the season so far.

With fine debuts from Martins and Fritz, but an outstanding team effort saw the Player of the Match award shared amongst all 18.