THE Crediton U18 Girls travelled down to Newton Abbot on Sunday to face a combination of Newton Abbot and Teignmouth girls in a friendly fixture.

The home sides featured some inexperienced girls and girls playing their first season at U18s level so the test for Crediton was to keep focused and use their experience to overcome the challenge in front of them.

The game got off to a flying start for the black and ambers and previous troubles around slow starts now seem to be a thing of the past as two quick opportunistic tries saw Kirton sprint quickly into a lead which they not only maintained but improved on as the half went on.

As with last week’s performance, there was a pleasing variety to the girls’ play. Direct running with good off loads, great breakdown work with, all round, great communication and continuity across the team made them just too hot to handle for the home side.

Three further tries followed, with four of the five tries converted, but the girls in all white kept pressing and pressing and got their reward with a crash over the Kirton line, under the posts, and added the conversion to get on the board as the half-time whistle went.

Some injuries to the Newton/Teignmouth girls disrupted further the combined XV and some Creddy girls helped out to keep the game numbers even and keep the match alive.

In the end though, experience and the advantage of a side that play together all the time versus a combined side with relative newcomers took its toll and the black and ambers crossed the whitewash five further times before the game came to an end.

All credit though as the all whites kept at it and kept at it, never letting their heads go down and always, when in possession, looking to go forward. They just missed on those invaluable connections between players that know each others game.

Thanks to everyone who came down to support and especially to the girls who, without hesitation, stepped up to play for the opposition and kept the game at 15- a-side for as long as possible.

Andrew Drayton