CREDITON 22 - WELLINGTON 5

MUCH as we all wanted to round off the season with a rousing performance and a convincing victory, sometimes we have to accept that the end result is what matters and how it is achieved is of secondary importance.

All we needed from the game was one point against already relegated Wellington to ensure survival in the Western Counties West League and as a consequence, our fate was in our own hands.

As it worked out, we gained our victory but it was by no means as comfortable as the score suggests and our visitors pushed us all the way.

We started brightly and were seven points to the good after two minutes when winger Devon Hosegood made a break down the right touchline and shipped inside to centre Jason Luff who scooted over under the posts leaving a simple conversion for fly-half Mark Lee.

It was a well-worked try made to look simple by the quality of the execution and the home support anticipated a glut of tries from thereon in. Well it didn’t quite work like that as Wellington, although destined to finish at the bottom of the league, began to play like a side that were in a far better position.

For the remainder of the half, they dominated possession and territory but did not have that killer touch to finish off some of their good approach work.

That said, our defence was in excellent form again and must be given credit for keeping them at bay.

As half-time approached and somewhat against the run of play, the visitors conceded a penalty on their “22” which Lee popped over for a 10-point interval lead.

The second half saw us more as an attacking force as the game went from end-to-end and on 55 minutes we won our put in at a scrum and Luff weaved his way through for an excellent solo try which Lee converted.

Wellington continued to take the game to us and our defence never faltered although in one of their attacks, prop Henry Gavin was yellow carded for an offence at a ruck but we defended the catch and drive from the lineout with relative ease.

Our third try came when the visitors broke from their “22” and a chip kick was mis-cued, home winger Matty Dayment picked up cleanly and raced clear to score in the corner.

Wellington were not about to give up and continued to have their share of the game and were rewarded with a well-deserved try near the end when a dropped pass in midfield was kicked through by their centre and he then won the foot-race to score. The conversion failed and for them it was too little too late.

We were unable to gain a bonus point try but at the end it mattered little, the objective was achieved and safety assured.

The win moved us up two places to finish in 10th place and, if nothing else, it was pleasing to end the season above our Mid Devon rivals, Tiverton.

CREDITON THIRD FIFTEEN 38 - WOKING 19

Our visitors from Woking were on their annual tour and despite having had a strenuous day on the Friday, as they went on the Marines endurance course, still managed to get a full 80 minutes of rugby in.

We had a team of mixed ages full of youth and experience and in the end we ran out relatively comfortable winners.

Tries from Leigh Kinch (2), James Webber, Joe Green, Tom Luxmore and Sam Andrews with Phil Anning converting three and Jake Attwell one.

OKEHAMPTON COLTS 17 - CREDITON COLTS 43

The Colts travelled to Okehampton two players short but Okey were good enough to loan us a couple of players, one of whom scored a try against his own team and converted it!

Colts centre Callum Barrett bagged a hat-trick of tries and there was one apiece for Robbie Guthrie, Tommy Jermyn and Josh Goldman.

Three conversions from Deyan Tomic completed the scoring.

Paul Harris