Ivel continued their excellent early season form, with a superb team performance to draw against Midsomer Norton. This was a very entertaining game, with Ivel having most of the possession in open play, against the counterattacking threat of  MSN.

In the first 2 minutes of the match MSN opened with an excellent converted try from their own half. Ivel then responded strongly and had a number of chances to equalise, but just lacked the composure and concentration to execute the final phase. So despite Ivel’s excellent play and endeavour, they finished the first half with no points to show for it.   

Ivel continued their domination of possession in the second half and hit back with a converted try. Ollie Patten placed an intelligent kick behind MSN’s line in their half, which was chased down brilliantly by Andile Xhakaza. The bounce fell kindly to him, and his electrifying pace did the rest, for a great score. Ollie Patten then struck an outstanding conversion from out wide. MSN then applied some pressure of their own and their talented back line produced a converted try with some superb passing movement.

Ivel though, were not finished, and in the last 10 minutes of the match mounted extreme pressure on MSN’s try line. This culminated in a surge by Ivel’s forwards, with Terry Leonard applying the final finish. Ollie Patten coolly placed the conversion to seal the draw, which was enjoyed by both sets of supporters, and was a fair result on the balance of play.

Wells only had 10 available players for this match. Ivel lent them 3 players and they then played a 13-a- side match.   Well done to Lewis Dewfall, Alex Graham and Andile Xhakaza for agreeing to play for Wells and then putting in good performances.

Ivel started strongly re-cycling lots of ball and putting  lots of pressure upon Wells. This resulted with a try by No 8 Sam Vincent who pickup up from the base of a scrum and ran through some weak tackling to score.
Soon after Ivel scored again this time running the ball wide and then finishing with an inside pass to 2nd Row Ryan Hughes to score.  Wells grabbed one try back before half time.

In the 2nd half, Wells started to use their more experienced three quarters to good effect and ran in 3 trys, all out wide.  Ivel managed one more try from Full back Mark Gaston after a good strong run down the wing.
Oliver Patten converted all three Ivel trys. Final score : 22 – 21 to Wells

A tough match for Ivel against a big strong Sherborne team. Sherborne started the game with great strength, pushing Ivel back in the scrum, tackling well and stripping Ivel of the ball. Sherborne quickly took a 10 point lead, both tries coming from their forwards. Ivel then mounted a very spirited defence with lots of good tackling and achieved parity in the scrums. They then got their good rucking game going. From a ruck in the middle of the pitch they got the ball out to Mark Gaston at outside center who took on the Sherborne back line and scored a fine individual try. Unfortunately Ivel then relaxed and allowed a soft try to be run in. 15 – 5 at half time.

Due to Half Term and injuries, Ivel travelled to Frome with only 13 players.  Frome (who had 15) agreed to a 13-a-side match.

Ivel had to shuffle their team quite a lot, one 2nd row played prop, the other played scrum half.  A centre and No 8 moved into 2nd Row.

Frome, due mainly to the balance of their team were always on top. However the 13 players for Ivel gave a good effort both in defence and attack, where they played some good flowing rugby both through the forwards and the backs.

The final score was 32 – 17 to Frome.  Very well done to the 13 Ivel players who turned up and played a good game.

Ivel produced their best performance of the season to date, securing victory against a very strong TOR team. Bearing in mind that Tor had to field 3 under 17s, this makes the result even more impressive.

It was the visitors who started the strongest, and pushed Ivel back into their own 22. However after an excellent clearance kick from Ollie Patten back into the Tor half, Ivel started to dominate the possession. Mark Gaston was very unlucky not to score, after a great solo effort to score in the right hand corner, when a last ditch tackle from a Tor player stopped a certain score.

Following sustained pressure from the Ivel pack, Tor conceded a penalty in front of the posts, which was converted by Ollie Patten. Tor responded immediately with a break away try of their own, but were unable to take the conversion. The rest of the half belonged to Ivel. In open play, Ryan Hughes collected the ball from the ruck, and powered towards the line. Even though he was tackled his momentum enabled him to stretch out his arm to touch the ball down for a try. That was 8 – 5 to Ivel at half time.    

Then in the second half Tor hit back with a try from their back line, out wide. As in the first half Ivel then came back to dominate the game for the rest of the match, which culminated in two outstanding individual tries. Liam Barron showed great determination and strength when he picked up possession just inside Tor’s half and ran through the opposition to score under the posts. Then Ryan Hughes broke through Tor’s back line to score in the left hand corner. What was particularly pleasing was the way Ivel closed the game down after that, keeping Tor in their own 22 for the rest of the match.    

Whilst the whole squad performed brilliantly, a special mention must be made for Ollie Jarvis as Scum half, and Jacob Stanley in fullback position. Time after time Ollie secured possession from some very difficult lineout and scrum ball. As for Jacob who is only in his first year of playing, he showed great potential, with some very good offensive and defensive rugby play. 

Great Performance Ivel! We now have 2 important training sessions on the 15th and 22nd of November at Ivel to prepare for our next challenges against Chard and North Dorset.    

Ivel produced another fantastic performance today, full of pride and commitment to narrowly lose to Hornets, in this close and exciting encounter. If you remember last season when Ivel lost by about 60 points to Hornets , this shows more than any other game how much they have improved!

It was the visitors though, who took control in the first 30 minutes, and dominated the possession, running in two unconverted tries. Then as we moved into half time Ivel’s forwards got some momentum going and pegged Hornets back in their own half. This meant that at half time for all their possession they were only 10 – 0 in the lead.    

Then in the second half Ivel hit back with a try from their back line. Just inside Hornets’ half Jacob Stanley hacked the ball forward, for Andile Xhakarza to chase. Andile was then able to get the ball first in their 22, and kicked it over the try line, but was tackled just before touching down. A penalty try was awarded, which was converted by Jacob Stanley.   

Hornets then responded with an unconverted try themselves, through their talented back line. This would be the last time that the visitors would score, as Ivel picked themselves up and drove forward following an excellent clearing kick by Ollie Jarvis. Then, as the ball came loose just outside the 22 in front of Hornets posts, Ollie was able to kick the ball behind their line and then pick up and score an excellent try in the corner.

With 10 minutes to go Ivel went on the offensive, but Hornets were able to put some desperate defence in and hang on to their 3-point lead, to win the match.       

Well done Ivel! Another great performance you can all be proud of!    

Somerset Cup 1st Round

Following a good win against Honiton at home (22 points to 5) in the last game before Christmas, Ivel faced a very difficult first round tie against Clevedon.

With all their ‘County’ players available, Clevedon produced an excellent display of 15-man rugby, and underlined why they will be one of the firm favourites to get to the final.

Having said this Ivel showed great  team spirit, never dropped their heads and kept playing right to the end. With 40 points on the board to Clevedon in the first half, Ivel produced their best move at the opening of the second half to score their only try of the game. Just inside their half way line Zade Milner collected the ball and ran with great determination through a gap in their the back line. After he was tackled he made the ball available and Mark Gaston finished the move with a powerful run to the try line.

In the scrum and ruck situations Ivel forwards gave as good as they got against high quality opposition, and Zak Francis never stopped trying in the lineout to secure Ivel possession. A special mention should also be made to Terry Leonard, Ryan Potter and Sam Vincent who never stopped tackling right to the final whistle.

Well done Ivel! Whilst it was a defeat, you gave a performance you can all be proud of!

Well done to Clevedon, and we wish them all the best in the next round.

Ivel travelled to Bridport which on paper should have been a very close match, based on previous encounters. Having said that it was clear to everyone that Bridport are a greatly improved team this season, and put in an excellent first half performance, scoring some really good tries to end the half 31 points to nil in front.

Most teams would have folded against such a sizeable lead, but in the second half Ivel managed to up their intensity and effort to score 2 unconverted tries themselves.

First Ryan Potter drove over the line in the top right hand corner following some excellent forward momentum. Then Mark Gaston scored following one of his trademark runs from deep beating a number of Bridport players before scoring on the left hand side.

This matched the converted try and drop goal that Bridport added to their total. So despite the first half, honours were even in the second half with both sides scoring 10 points.

Whilst the whole squad played a lot better in the second half a special mention for Connor Bridgeland and Harry Buckle should be made. Connor who plays in the forwards showed real tenacity in driving Ivel’s forwards towards Bridport’s line, and Harry secured some excellent lineout possession with some great catches.