Devonport 22 Crediton 15

A TRIP to second placed Devonport Services, to play on the artificial grass pitch, wouldn’t necessarily feature at the top of your bucket list of destinations when in a wretched run of form like we have been and one suspects that the home side were rubbing their hands at the prospect of our visit.

With Dennis beginning to kick up a storm, the journey down the A38 was treacherous in places but with a losing bonus point in the bag, it was a much more pleasant drive home!

Of course we would have liked more and, in all fairness, could have had a share of the spoils. However, points have been hard to come by of late and our performances disappointing, so to see the lads get a reward for putting in a huge shift was fantastic!

We made a great start to the game and for the opening five minutes were camped in the Services “22”.

Numerous pick and drives were repelled but with pressure building the home side were a bit eager and penalised for straying offside. We opted for a scrum and after a couple more goes at the line, hooker Tom Luxmoore drove over. Ollie Avery-Wright added the conversion for a 0 -7 lead.

Surprised by the opening exchanges, Services were stunned into life and having been awarded a penalty, kicked to the corner. The home pack secured good ball and set up a solid attacking maul which was driven over for an unconverted try to make it 5 - 7 with 15 minutes gone.

On 20 minutes, the home side were in again. We had enjoyed some decent possession and territory in the build up but, lacking a bit of patience, got turned over. A couple of missed tackles allowed the home “10” to make some ground and a couple of passes later they dotted down in the corner for 10 - 7. Photographic evidence later threw doubt on the validity of the try and the ball appeared to have been dropped over the line. However, the referee cannot see everything and in this instance it would have been impossible to spot.

The remainder of the half was pretty even, with both sides able to get themselves in decent positions only to give away penalties affording easy exits. We were struggling a bit in the lineouts but at this stage there was parity in the scrum. Arguably some of our tackles were a bit high but generally the defence looked sound.

With the half coming to an end we won a penalty which Ollie Avery-Wright slotted to make it 10 - 10 at the break.

The swirling wind had just about been in our favour for the first half and with it now at their backs, Services were able to dominate territory and possession early in the second half. Our penalty count was on the up but with the home side not opting to go for goal, our defence was being tested.

We were given an out when Services infringed and a quick tap from Mark Nott got us on the front foot. The ball was recycled quickly and Devon Hosegood kicked over the top. His chase was good and as he hacked on again we were in the home “22”. Unfortunately, we gave away a penalty and the threat was over.

With an hour gone our work rate was still excellent. Our scrum was starting to creak a bit but the game was wide open.

It was Services next to score though and with another penalty kicked to the corner they used their catch and drive to good effect. With the conversion missed it was 15 - 10 with quarter of an hour remaining.

We responded well and with some territory and possession in our favour were looking dangerous. We forced a couple of penalties in the home “22", opting to tap and go. A third looked almost certain when a Services player found himself on the wrong side of the ruck but the referee deemed it an unplayable situation giving us a scrum instead. Rather frustratingly, the home players managed to get themselves in similar positions at a couple more breakdowns with the same result.

Despite our scrum struggling we did manage to keep the ball alive and after a couple of phases the ball was released to fly half Rob Avery-Wright. Unable to gather the ball cleanly he managed to kick the ball in the direction of Hosegood who managed to gather, beat a defender and touch down in the corner. The conversion was unsuccessful and it was 15 - 15. In the interest of balanced reporting, there was a pretty big hint of a knock on in the build up to this one but play was allowed to continue.

Disappointingly, Services hit back immediately from the kick off. We knocked on and from the resulting scrum they worked the blind side and their winger went in to score close to the posts. With the extras added it was 22 - 15 and with only a few minutes left, that’s how it stayed.

This was a much improved display and the bonus point was well earned and well deserved. Bouncing back from last weeks defeat in the way they did is a huge credit to the lads and will hopefully show those who still have doubts, that we do have the qualities to complete in this division.

Paul Harris