MINEHEAD completed the season’s double over St Berenadettes Old Boys when they gained a crushing 90-0 home victory over their rivals in Counties Two Somerset, having won a much closer contest between the teams earlier this season..

There was an important first start for Ed Allen in the front row, and Ryan Ayres made his debut at scrum-half. Instant success came from the first scrum when Webber broke blind, he off-loaded to Day who beat the defence and sprinted in for aconverted try.

Moving the ball up the slope gave Gower room to chip the ball ahead, Fritz collected it on the bounce and race in from 50m.

The visitors did have a heavy pack and at times the Barbarians had to defend hard, but the backline was all Minehead, where the tackles were made, and chance taken. As an example, Bernadettes tried to run the ball, Hole made the tackle, the ball came loose, Senior sent a pass to Gower who raced away to score. A blistering break by Hole almost gained another score.

A counter attack from Day opened up play, Gower again chipped beyond Fritz who could not gather easily, but as the defenders closed he dodged and left them in his wake to score. From the restart Willes caught the ball, Buckingham burst through with Webber in support, his inside pass sent Martins away to the line.

The final try of the half went to fly-half Wilcox, who spotted a gap when the visitors tried to stop another breakout. While the scores had come from the backs, the work done by the Barbarians’ lighter pack was huge, the young front row of Allen, Martins, and Hollingsworth, and the experience of Richards and the storming Willes behind them, allowed the home backrow to dominate.

The first try of the second period was constructed by the front row. Hollingsworth made a tackle, Allen peeled away and drove forward and when the ball was released wide it found Hole, who powered to the line. Next Bullard carried hard, then Senior pulled in the defence, which allowed Gower’s pass to send Day away to the line.

All the Barbarians’ focus was on attack, when Gower claimed a mark in his 22 he tapped it quickly and countered, Day made ground then Webber drove on, when he was stopped short, Ayres dived over.

Bernadettes kept playing hard and for the next ten minutes had a lot of possession, aided by some penalties against the home side. However, Cox, How, and Swann joined the fray as Minehead regained possession. A quick pass from Senior, and Day sped away from his own half.

Next on the score sheet was Senior, from a scrum in the visitor’s 22 the ball came loose, Webber claimed it and fed Wilcox, his pass gave space for his centre to run through to the line. New boy Ayres then claimed a second, as he supported a storming burst from Cox.

As time ran out there were two final scores from Minehead. First Fritz burst away and was stopped inches from the line, for Day to dive over, and then on the final whistle good work from Cox took them close, a between the legs pass from Swann created space for Hole to shoot over.

Man of the Match: Bruce Bullard