Crediton RFC Ladies 33 - Penryn Ladies 14

CREDITON Ladies rounded off the league season with a reasonably comfortable victory over Penryn.

With a few regulars missing, plus an improvement in the form of Penryn, made for a closely fought encounter for the first hour, but the Crediton girls pulled away in the latter stages.

The game took a while to settle as both sides were looking to gain the ascendancy, the visitors looked a strong set of forwards but Crediton were looking sharp outside although perhaps didn’t make use of their pace out wide as often as they could have.

Second row forward Mercedes Aves opened the scoring with a well worked try converted by fullback Libby Baker but it did not take Penryn long to reduce the arrears with a try of their own which went unconverted.

Centre Danni Phillips finished off a good handling move with Baker adding a second conversion. The game was largely contested in midfield with both defences holding firm through to the interval.

The second half was almost a stalemate until Crediton began to open up and exploit some defensive lapses that were beginning to show in the visitors.

Baker added a try and conversion soon followed by a penalty try and from that point it was looking like a Crediton victory. Penryn hit back with a converted try to reduce the arrears but it was Baker once again who sealed the victory with a final try.

Whilst the league season is over for the Ladies, there is still the small matter of playing three games at Twickenham next Monday as they have been invited to take part in the Community Rugby event at the RFU Headquarters.

This is just reward for the effort put in by the players and coaches and to be recognised in such a way is a huge honour for the Club.

Devon Second XV Shield Final

Crediton 22 - Okehampton 15

The Quins produced a superb performance to overcome a strong Okehampton side and become the first winners of the Second XV Shield.

This was a deserved reward for the hard work put in over the season and consolation for not quite managing to overhaul OPM to win the league.

The Quins showed early on that they were going to dominate the scrum and the first few proved very uncomfortable for the Okes eight.

Nonetheless, we were unable to make the initial breakthrough until midway through the first half when flanker Sam Rowe managed to offload as he was tackled to lock Matt Arnold who broke a couple of tackles to break clear and score at the posts. Fly half Tom Ronchetti added the extras.

The visitors hit back and won a penalty in front of the posts as we were caught offside but within minutes Sam Ronchetti landed a penalty for the Quins for a 10-3 lead.

Okes tried hard to claw back the deficit but the Quins defence was outstanding and the first up tackles from the threes were superb and Okes were never able to make much ground.

We reached the interval with a 10-3 lead and although the visitors did not create many scoring opportunities, it was generally felt that one lapse in defence would let them through and that the next score would be important for both sides.

As it turned out, the chance fell to centre Bobby Jenkin as he got his foot to a loose ball and then won the footrace to touch down out wide.

The conversion missed but at 15-3 we had moved two scores ahead.

Things got even better when an Okehampton attack broke down and a swift counter attack ended with Ethan Power diving over with Tom Ronchetti landing the extras.

It was now a question of keeping Okes out for the remaining 15 minutes. As with every game of rugby, each side will have their periods of pressure and for Okehampton it was to be at the end of the game.

They piled on the pressure but were kept at bay until the 75th minute when centre Leon Horn went over for 22-8, the conversion missed.

With the minutes ticking down the last minutes seemed an eternity and the nerves jangled even more when Okes bagged another try which was converted 22-15 but with that, the final whistle blew for a tremendous win for the Quins.

Both sides gave everything, we certainly had the edge up front and as previously noted, the defence was outstanding.

The entire squad deserve full praise for their efforts throughout the season and today was the icing on the cake.

On Saturday we host another final, this time the First XV are in action against Ivybridge in the Senior Shield Final, KO 2.30pm.

This will be the final game of the season so why not come along and support the team as you won’t get a chance to see them until September!

Paul Harris