CREDITON SECONDS 16 - DEVONPORT SECONDS 17

BOTH sides produced an entertaining pre-Christmas tussle on December 22 which as the score suggests was a tight affair which indeed could have gone either way.

Our forward domination should really have seen us home but unfortunately, we were unable to make full use of the advantage that we had in that area.

In the first half in particular when we had the slope in our favour it was disappointing to reach the interval 8-10 down.

The early exchanges were even and play ebbed and flowed with both teams testing each other out. Eventually though, it was the visitors who drew first blood when they won a penalty on six minutes in front of the posts. Toby Moss kicked it over the crossbar for early lead.

The game continued on quite evenly, the home pack with the upper-hand causing problems for Devonport.

On 21 minutes we won a penalty for an offside and from a position nearly half-way out towards the leisure centre side Dan Cooper kicked an equalising penalty.

Six minutes later Crediton took the lead with a forwards try, from an attacking scrum five metres out ending with the forwards strong arming themselves over the line in a maul for veteran No 8 Andy Dafters claiming the touch down, not bad for a 56-year-old! The conversion went wide.

It was a pity that we could not capitalise on that score and put the game away with a decent interval lead.

For their part, Devonport began to settle their scrum and we did not have things all our own way and their first up tackles kept us at bay.

Just as the 40 minutes point was coming into sight the referee yellow carded one of our players for repeated infringements, a team card for being offside, perhaps a bit harshly but even during the goodwill to all men period, if you are continually offside, you are still liable to get carded.

Devonport went for the catch and drive option and it worked well for them as they earned a seven pointer on the stroke of half-time.

On the hour mark, Devonport had one in the bin and we were looking to get the score that would put us ahead, a sharp move with the ball going through several pairs of hands came to an abrupt end when the ball was dropped.

Worse was to follow as the visitors pounced on the loose ball and took play down field and, after several phases, crossed the line for another converted try leaving us to play catch up against the slope.

As the game went into the last 10 minutes we got a couple of penalties five meters out. We scrummaged the second one but Devonport held firm so Chris Hooper at No 8 came off the back and went blind and had little difficulty getting over the line. Dan Cooper’s conversion went over.

Devonport held out for the remaining minutes to gain the narrow victory in an entertaining game played in good spirit.

CREDITON COLTS 22 - SOUTH MOLTON COLTS 14

South Molton Colts were the visitors for this Devon RFU Plate fixture and both sides served up a fantastic festive feast for the sizeable crowd.

In what proved to be a physical battle with both sides putting in some big tackles, it was the Crediton lads who edged the first half and with two tries and turned around 10-0 ahead.

The opening try came from winger Sam Wilson who proved too quick for the visiting defenders in a dash down the touchline to score in the corner.

That score was soon followed with by another, this time centre Josh Woodland going over.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though as South Molton were far from out of the game and they hit back strongly in the second half with two well-taken tries, both converted to put them ahead.

They had looked after the ball better than Crediton and indeed looked threatening in attack whilst at the same time we had lost our way.

Surrendering the lead as we had, proved the wake up call that was obviously needed. Within minutes skipper and No 8 Will Crang forced his way through the Molton defence to score. Owen Wilson converted to put us ahead 17-14.

If anyone thought that was game over, it certainly had not entered the minds of the South Molton players as they battled back but the Crediton defence was solid and kept the opposition at bay.

The final score came from a powerful run down the left by Josh Woodland who went through three despairing tackles to score the bonus point try and secure a hard earned victory.

Both sides must be credited for producing an excellent game of rugby that swung from end-to-end.

There were some very talented players on both sides which will enable both Clubs to look forward with a sense of optimism about the future.

For the First Fifteen, the second half of the league programme begins on Saturday, January 5, with a home game against Bideford who currently lie second from bottom.

We had a comfortable win against them back in September on their ground but their form has improved dramatically over the past few weeks with three wins and a draw from their last six games.

They will be a very different proposition this time around and we will need to be at our best to start the New Year with a win.

Paul Harris