CHARD Colts had to settle for a 7-5 defeat at the hands of Bridgwater Albion in the Somerset Under-18 league when fly-half Ryan Wingate sent a conversion - the last kick of the match - sailing by the left hand post, writes Jacob Whitefield.

Chard, who beat Sidmouth 17-15 in their final pre-season friendly, approached the match with plenty of optimism.

And on a dry, hard pitch in the heat of a summer's day, they were looking good as they applied constant pressure on the Bridgwater defence throughout the first half.

Chard's consistently turning over the scrums, allowing a lot of the ball to go through the backs.

It wasn't all Chard in the first half. When Bridgwater did have possession they looked to capitalise with the pace of their wingers but were contained by strong covering tackles by Chard's own wide men, Murray Squire and Calum Syrett.

Bridgwater also lost two players through injury in the first half which finished scoreless.

With everything still to play for in the second half both teams came out with renewed vigour.

It was Bridgwater who made the breakthrough, capitalising on slow Chard reactions from a quick tap penalty to score the first points of the day ten minutes after the interval.

A successful conversion left Chard seven points adrift but they continued to dominate in the scrum and line-outs, keeping a lot of the ball in their hands.

The impressive line-outs, dominated by Ash Wilson-Briant, Callum Young and Bradley Clapp, with hooker Joel Nicholls throwing well, allowed the forwards to show off the strength of their driving maul.

This pressure was kept on the home team's defence for the rest of the half, and when Henry Elliot and Liam Mustchin came on, the pressure paid off with Liam Mustchin going over in the corner to make the score 7-5.

Unfortunately Wingate was unable to level the scores and Chard had to settle for a losing bonus point.

Two players who enjoyed particularly good games for Chard were Ed Sullivan and man-of-the-match Connor Caddick.

This weekend Chard entertain last season's runners-up, Frampton Cotterell.