Gazette Sport
RUGBY: Honours even between Taunton and Wellington Under-13s
7:21pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
Taunton Under-13s and Wellington Under-13s proved to be well-matched, fighting out a 5-5 draw.
Wellington won the toss, chose to kick, and from the start were put under pressure when the kick did not go ten metres.
So the scrum went to Taunton who picked and drove from the base of the scrum.
Taunton put Wellington under a lot of pressure not letting Wellington out of their own half.
All the attacking play was coming from Taunton when a knock-on from Taunton was picked up by the fast Wellington winger who ran the length of the pitch to score against the run of play in the eighth minute.
Taunton came back at Wellington and kept up the pressure but could not break the Welly line which stayed firm again and again.
Taunton let themselves down with some knock-ons and by giving up penalties, but in the 15th minute after a sure-footed attack of pick and drive from the forwards, tight head prop Kieran Verden crossed the Wellington line to level the score.
The second half again saw Taunton enjoy the bulk of possession.
Scrum half Ben Jones saw an opening from a five metre scrum and went for the try-line but was judged to have been pushed into touch before putting the ball down - great defence from Wellington.
In the 41st minute Taunton, defending just inside their half, recovered the ball and prop Ben Congdon slipped several tackles and made a great run all the way to the Wellington try line.
Sadly he knocked on while putting the ball down so there was no score.
Wellington got a second wind and put together a string of attacks in the last 10 minutes.
In one attack their left winger broke the Taunton line and looked sure to score, but Taunton captain and Taunton man of the match Elliot Trotman made a game-saving tackle that was backed up by some great support from the Taunton forwards.