BRIDGWATER and Albion opened their 2024-25 Western Counties North campaign with a home defeat against Nailsea and Backwell on Saturday.

Two evenly balanced sides ensured a keenly contested match throughout and, although the Albion created a number of opportunities, they were unable to make them count and it was Nailsea and Backwell who ran out the winners.

The visitors kicked off but after four minutes, Jay Owens gave the Albion the lead when he slotted home a penalty. The lead was short lived, however, as Nailsea hit straight back with a try by Charlie Cox that was converted by Alex Jones.

The next 20 minutes of the half saw the hosts create a period of pressure and the majority of the play was in the Nailsea half.

Several scoring chances were created but on each occasion they either failed to break through the strong Nailsea defence, or the final pass just failed to go to hand. 

In the end it was Nailsea who broke the deadlock when scrum half Joe Reed collected the ball in his own half and sprinted to the try line to score a try which Jones converted to double the lead.

Towards the end of the half, an Owens penalty reduced the arrears but right on the whistle Jones slotted one home for the visitors to make it 6-17 at the break.

Nailsea started strongly but after five minutes a great break by George Sluman resulted in the ball being worked across the backs before eventually Alex Knight crashed over for an unconverted try.

Kyran Devitt came off the bench and had an immediate impact. The winger made a scything run from his own half before chipping ahead and collecting the ball and going over for a try to the left of the posts, that was again unconverted.

This brought the deficit to one point, but it wasn’t long before Nailsea extended their lead when prop Sam Cook scored a try in the right corner which Jones converted to make the score 16-24.

The visitors went further ahead when Ben Perfect went over for a try that Jones converted leaving Albion needing more than two converted tries to win.

With quarter of an hour remaining, Nailsea found themselves down to 14 when they had a player yellow carded. From the following passage of play Albion crossed the line but the ball was held up.

Another darting run by the ever dangerous Devitt resulted in Owens going over for a try which the winger converted, shortly after which the whistle went.

The hosts will reflect on this game as one that if they taken their chances, kicked their penalties and converted their tries they could and should have won.

On Friday night the Albion travel to play at Chard where they kick off at 7.30pm.