Counties 2 Tribute Somerset: Chew Valley 17-48 Taunton Warriors

THE Taunton Warriors have continued on their winning form after an impressive victory over Chew Valley at the weekend, writes Mike Amos.

It was a drizzly afternoon, and the playing conditions were sticky underfoot and the ball brown as it was covered in mud. 

However, Chew fielded the ball from the kick off and ran at the Warriors defence after some good recycles, and with just three minutes on the clock, Chew went in for an unconverted try and a 5-point lead. 

The Warriors kicked off again and looked to repeat their movement at the start, but Ollie Schuster-Wood pulled off an outstanding tackle stopping the Chew attacker in his tracks and winning the Warriors the first scrum of the match. 

From that scrum Chew were driven back 15 metres and the Warriors had earned a penalty.  The Warriors opted for the scrum and back went Chew again to within touching distance of the try line. 

With the Chew defence in disarray Jo Atkins picked up the ball and crashed over for the first of the Warriors eight tries.  Ben Alvis converted, and the Warriors had a two-point lead. 

The Warriors continued with their forward dominance with many good drives even when they made mistakes and gave away scrums, so was their scrum dominance that Chew never had clean ball and they generally had little chance to turn that possession into good attacks and generally kicked possession away. 

Taunton were always willing to run these kicks back at the opposition and on the 15-minute mark Ben Alvis from fullback joined the attack to score the Warriors second try of the game. 

Just 5-minutes later and Jo went in for his second try of the afternoon.  Several good breaks had been made but the last pass going astray, however, with 34 minutes on the clock a good pass to Ollie Brown he outpaced the opposition for a try which Ben converted.

Just one minute later, Tom Haughton-King reading the game exceptionally well intercepted a Chew pass and raced from the halfway line for the try which was converted giving the Warriors their fourth try of the afternoon and their try bonus point. 

With just two minutes of the half left, Sam Knott used his size and strength to go over for a try which Ben converted to give the Warriors a halftime lead of 5to 38-points.

With three minutes of the second half gone Tom Haughton-King finished off some good work by the forwards to score.

Good possession and dominance allowed Ollie Schuster-Wood to go in for a well worked try. This was to be the last for the Warriors who had a number of opportunities but for the last pass or the wrong option.

Th next three games for the Warriors are all at home on the 2nd, 9th and 16th of March.