Tiverton Seconds 10 - Crediton Quins 12

LOCAL derbies between Crediton Rugby Club and against Tiverton are generally closely fought and as such it doesn’t need to be a league fixture to make the games competitive. 

However, this was a league game and an important one at that if we are to maintain any sort of pressure on Topsham, a victory was needed.

The pitch was heavy under foot which made life difficult for both sides but, despite that, the two teams handled the ball extremely well and played some good rugby.

We did have a dominant scrum and the first try came from a five-metre scrum which we drove over their line for skipper Chris Hooper to claim the touch down.

Josh Goldman, back from injury, landed the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

The home side responded and earned a penalty when we were penalised for failing to roll away at the tackle and the lead was reduced to four points.

The game was evenly contested as both sides battled to gain the upper hand.

It was lock, Josh Atkinson, who broke the deadlock using his strength to power his way over.

The conversion missed and we reached the interval with a 12-3 lead.

The second half, rather like the first, was a battle fought out in midfield, with neither side able to gain a clear cut advantage other than in the scrum where we continued to dominate. A succession of scrum penalties came our way as Tivvy defended desperately, although the anticipated penalty try never came.

Eventually, we sent the ball wide but the attack fizzled out.

We were forced to defend for much of the remainder of the game and we kept the home side at bay although they did cross the line out wide to reduce the gap to two points and the conversion failed.

From the restart, Tivvy attacked again and we conceded a penalty which was kicked to the corner and with four minutes left on the clock, we were forced to defend and eventually turned them over and cleared our lines to end the game with a very hard earned win.

Both sides should be commended for the effort that they put in, the result could have gone either way and we were grateful to return home with the victory.

It may not have been the bonus point win that we needed but under the circumstances, we were happy to settle simply for the win.

It was a fantastic effort from the entire squad who battled hard for this result.

Really pleasing to see Josh Goldman back from injury and he put in some strong tackles which showed that his shoulder has fully recovered.

On Saturday we have a full house of fixtures, the First XV travel to Teignmouth, the Quins host Teignmouth, both league games.

The Thirds have a home Merit Table game against Exeter Saracens and the Colts are at home against Sidmouth Colts in the least of their Group games.

Paul Harris