MINEHEAD Barbarians U16s produced some spirited and exciting rugby to beat Tor 31-15 on a wet and muddy day at Ellicombe.

The Minehead front row of Tanner, Blackshaw and Reeder had an edge, while Male and Krawczyk revelled in the conditions.

The Barbarians scored early; Krawczyk stole a lineout, Lock drove forward, and then Ahern worked a slick scissors move to give space for Cudmore to race away to the tryline. The second try came when Lock broke from the scrum and carried deep, the next carry came from Krawczyk, and when Browne fed Ahern, he sold a dummy and sprinted through to score.

Cudmore grabbed a second try when Ahern took a “tap penalty” and passed to the centre who accelerated away from 50 metres. Then White scored a well-deserved try, diving over after a strong carry by Wing.

Another tap penalty saw Clavey making good ground, and linking with Cudmore, before Clavey almost made the line.

The second period was much tighter, as the ground conditions deteriorated. Tor, to their credit, carried the ball strongly often driving the Barbarians back.

Bishop came onto the wing, and Mossman joined the forwards. However, it was Tor who were first on the board, their player crashing over after a period of pressure.

Soon after smooth passing saw Bishop given room, and he raced away and when finally stopped the Minehead loose forwards drove hard towards the line. But it was Tor who scored again, when a clean lineout take was driven over the line to score.

Minehead battled back in the mud, and scored a very cleverly worked try. From a scrum 10m out, Browne fed Ahern, who slipped an inside pass to Cudmore who burst over the line untouched. Just seconds from the end the visitors scored a consolation try.

Players of the day were Sam Lock and Danny Wing.