Stothert & Pitt 34 Frampton Cotterell 26

FRAMPTON Cotterell travelled to last season’s Somerset Premier champions Stothert & Pitt on Saturday and produced a great display of attacking rugby, but they were ultimately undone in the final 15 minutes as the home team's distinctive size advantage took its toll.

Stothert & Pitt were first to open the scoring after some forward dominating pressure, especially at the set plays.

Frampton hit back straight away and soon opened their account with an early contender for try of the season that left both coach Mike Ashwin and club captain Mike Weaver aghast on the touchline.

A lineout on the opposition's 22 produced good clean ball off the top from flanker Lee Poulton. Bob Adams passed to fly half Ed Spalding, who fed centre Ben Carter on a straight line.

Deft of hand from Carter popped a pass back to Spalding, who then found fullback Isaac Stell in space. Stell ran hard to the line and, as he hit the last defender, popped the ball to winger Alex Giles, who touched down in the corner.

Stothert and Pitt responded straight away, scoring from first phase themselves with a pick up from a scrum on Frampton’s five-metre line.

Frampton, however, are determined to throw the ball about this year and hooker George Baggins found himself in space to crash over.

Frampton continued to use the slope advantage and No 8 Josh Creed crashed over after another trademark bulldozing run through the heart of the defence, leaving destruction in his wake. Spalding added the extras to put Frampton 19-12 up at half-time.

The second half was more end to end rugby with both sides trading blows, however the home team came out on top, using the slope to their advantage to come out eventual winners.

Frampton seconds had better luck against a strong Stothert & Pitt team by using both youth and experience to come out on top 24-19.

Winger and man of the match Ben Milky scored his second try in two games.