BRADFORD on Avon coach Dave George took plenty of positives as his side went down fighting 40-27 away at Yeovil on the opening day of the Southern Counties South season.

Bradford took a while to adjust to their new level following last season’s promotion from Dorset & Wilts One North and found themselves well in arrears early on.

However, Murray Dewar kick-started a resurgence with a brace of tries before the interval and would go on to complete a hat-trick in the second half.

Adam McBraida and Lewis Somerville also got over the whitewash for Bradford as they at least travelled home from Somerset with a try bonus point to show for their efforts.

Head coach George said: “I don’t think we touched the ball in the first 20 minutes and Yeovil scored two or three tries, but then by half-time we managed to get ourselves 20-19 up.

“We let them have a couple of soft tries after the break, but Murray got another one to finish his hat-trick.

“It was six tries to five, but we only got one conversion. They got their kicks and we didn’t – that was the difference.

“To get five tries away from home was a good effort. We got the try bonus point and it would have been nice to get the losing bonus point as well.

“I think Yeovil were probably the better side overall but it has given us a bit of a wake-up now – we know what we are up against.

“We know we can score tries, we have just got to keep them out now. If we can just tighten up in defence a little bit, we will be OK.”

Bradford are on the road again this weekend when they make the short trip to county rivals Corsham, who tasted opening-day success as they won 30-20 at Bath side Walcot.

New first-team captain Lewis Jones opened the scoring with a try and a further score by Kyran Broughton and penalty by Andy Williamson gave Corsham a 13-6 half-time lead.

The second half saw Walcot fight back with two converted tries but Corsham stayed in front with a well-worked score by Alex Twigg and five points from the boot of Williamson to lead 23-20 going into the final stages.

John Murzyn went over for the converted bonus-point score in the last play of the game.

Corsham head coach Tim Draper said: “It was great to start the season with a five-point win.

“Walcot are a much-changed team from last season and they tested us out a lot with ball in hand.

“We were always ahead on the scoreboard but never quite enough to feel completely comfortable.

“We played some excellent rugby in spells during the game and we will be working to develop this further over the coming weeks.’’