Crediton 31 - Newton Abbot 5

WHILST Mother Nature caused the postponement of the games for Crediton RFC Seconds, Thirds and Colts, she didn’t quite defeat our ground staff who did a brilliant job to thwart her efforts and ensure the First XV game went ahead.

Newton were on a run of six successive defeats but in all those defeats they have managed to score points.

Scoring over 30 points at home against the league leaders is no mean feat and to lose the game would disappoint anyone.

The point is that they are a side capable of scoring tries but at the same time they appear to have a somewhat leaky defence.

For us it was a question of gaining maximum points and conceding as few points as possible and in that respect it was mission accomplished.

It took a few minutes for both sides to settle, the conditions were difficult but we soon gained the upper hand especially at scrum time as the visitors were really struggling in that department.

A penalty on 14 minutes was kicked to the corner and the resulting driving maul saw hooker Dan Yendell get the touch down.

Ollie Avery-Wright landed the conversion and the scoreboard was on its way.

Within minutes, a flowing three-quarter move saw right wing Josh Hall join the line on the left and supply the final pass for left wing Devon Hosegood to finish off, the conversion drifted wide.

Newton began to show signs of a recovery stretching our defence as they first tried to crash up the middle and then recycle to spread the ball wide.

Eventually paying off with the fullback coming in the line to score out wide, the conversion failed.

Back on the attack and another catch and drive try, this time flanker Jake Clarke on the end and the OAW conversion gave us a 19-5 interval lead.

The second half began with some fully committed attacking from the visitors but defensively we were able to deal with things albeit not without the odd scare but generally for all their time in our half, Newton could not make the breakthrough.

The bonus point try came when Yendell grabbed his second although this time not at the bottom of a driving maul but out on the right wing. Jake Clarke broke off the maul on the short side and fed Yendell who went over in the corner, the difficult kick was missed and at 24-5 we were looking comfortable.

A couple of other chances came and went but for all that Newton kept plugging away and tried to run from deep at any opportunity.

The final score came when Yendell turned provider when from a ruck, he slipped the ball out wide to Josh Hall who stepped inside a couple of defenders to score. OAW landed the extras for a final score of 31-5.

A good performance in difficult conditions, a bonus point win which keeps some sort of pressure on St Austell.

The win took us back into second place still with two games in-hand on third place Truro and one in-hand over leaders St Austell.

Newton are going through a rebuilding process and their young side competed with a spirited display although they were under pressure in the scrum.

However, they certainly had ambition as they tried to run everything out of defence in the latter stages.

Generally though we had too much firepower for them and some of our handling was top drawer stuff and maybe with a little more awareness at times, the score could have been bigger.

On Saturday, the First XV travel to North Petherton, the Quins have a rescheduled game at Torrington, the Third XV travel to Barnstaple Thirds and the Colts host Devonport.

Paul Harris