Chard 13 -
Crediton 10

FOLLOWING last week’s excellent home win against league leaders St Austell, last weekend Crediton First XV travelled over the border into Somerset to meet Chard RFC in a rearranged game following the original fixture being postponed before Christmas due to a frozen pitch.

Although languishing in the bottom half of the league table, Crediton knew that the hosts would be a competitive force, this was proved when Crediton played them at home earlier in the season.

They were one of the hardest sides to break down then and the team knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy game on their own patch.

Chard started the game full of intent and Crediton were pinned down in their own “22” metres area for the opening few minutes.

Chard were looking after possession and going through phases and creating good ball to work us across the width of the pitch.

It took no more than three minutes for Chard to claim their just reward for their sustained period of territory and possession.

Looking after the ball well they had another series of multi phase plays where they went from one side of the pitch to the other, drawing in the Crediton defence and finding space to go over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Crediton’s response was swift and effective from the kick-off, the team took play deep into the Chard half and tested the home defence by keeping possession and going through several phases, although defensively, Chard looked pretty solid.

The breakthrough came on seven minutes when Crediton were awarded a scrum penalty which was kicked into the corner for a line out.

Winning the line out ball Crediton then set up a strong driving maul to drive over the Chard try line for Jake Clarke to get the touch down for an unconverted try.

Chard began to dominate the set scrums which became a major issue for Crediton who are seldom edged out by opposition forwards.

With the supply of good possession almost cut off, Crediton struggled to get any momentum into their game.

After 11 minutes a scrum penalty against them was kicked to the corner and the resulting lineout saw the hosts move ahead with a try off a driving maul, the conversion failed to find its mark.

The remainder of the first half was something of a stalemate with defences cancelling each other out.

Chard dominated the set play but generally, possession and territory remained evenly contested and Crediton reached the interval 5-10 down.

Both sides made changes at half-time but the general pattern of the game remained much the same as the first half, neither side able to break down the opposing defence and scoring chances were few and far between.

However, eight minutes from time, a Chard clearance was charged down and Crediton reacted quickly to regain possession and move the ball through several pairs of hands to put Ben Wonnacott in for a try, sadly the conversion was missed and the scores remained level.

The final few minutes looked to be playing out for a draw but one final effort from the home side drew a penalty for an infringement just inside Crediton’s half.

The kick proved successful and the final whistle brought proceedings to a close. From a Chard perspective, perfect timing for the only successful kick of the game to prove the match winner.

Credit must go to Chard for a very committed performance all afternoon, and a performance over the full 80 minutes which belied their league position.

Crediton battled hard all afternoon, and although they came away with a losing Bonus Point, it wasn’t their day!

Whilst promotion is mathematically possible, it would take a disaster of biblical proportions to prevent St Austell from being crowned league champions.

Exeter Athletic 7 - Crediton Quins 48

The earlier fixture back in November, under lights, was a close run thing as Crediton almost blew a 19 point lead and in the end were happy to hear the final whistle as the Athletic had battled back to within a score.

The trip to Exeter was a potential banana skin and, having suffered successive defeats, a third one would undoubtedly kill off any promotion hopes that the Quins might have had.

A crisp but sunny February afternoon seemed to bring out the best in the players and there was no way the Quins would be giving up the promotion chase without a fight and with the memory of those defeats at Okehampton and OPM fresh in the mind, there was a steely determination about our play.

Early pressure in the Athletic “22”, a strong sniping run by scrum-half Joe Dodge saw him break a couple of tackles to score, fly half Tom Ronchetti landed the conversion.

It soon became apparent that Crediton’s scrum was too strong for the home side and as a consequence had a great platform to play off.

Chris Hooper was next to touch down when he broke off the back of a scrum to score, Ronchetti added the extras. However, it was not all one way traffic as the hosts struck back with a well worked try and the conversion cut our lead to seven points.

That really was about as good as it got for the Athletic as they fumbled the restart kick following pressure from the chasing pack, the resulting ruck it was Dodge who neatly slipped a pass down the blind side for lock Josh Atkinson to score in the corner.

The conversion drifted wide and Crediton reached the interval with a 19-7 lead.

During the half-time chat, the players were reminded of the previous encounter when, seemingly out of it, the Athletic hit back strongly and it was felt that we needed to step up a gear and stop the home side from gaining a foothold in the game.

The discussion clearly had the desired effect and we played some good rugby to totally dominate the final 40 minutes Flanker Ben Rodd bagged two tries, Hooper completed his hat-trick and Atkinson also touched down for a second try, Ronchetti added two more conversions to complete the scoring.

The Athletic did have their moments in the second half but were unable to break the defensive wall.

This was a tremendous comeback after the two previous defeats and it keeps the pressure on OPM.

After a succession of away games, it will be good for the Seconds to have a home game against Sidmouth.

No easy task, but certainly a victory will keep us in the hunt, there is still much to play for over the next few weeks.

Crediton Colts 24 - Bideford Colts 10

The previous three games between these two sides this season have been both competitive and skilful and this fourth encounter was no different and was another Colts fixture that remained in the balance until the final quarter.

The previous three meetings had produced a win for each side and a draw and to make things even more interesting, neither side had won the home game, fortunately, superstition took a back seat on this occasion.

This was a battle between two good sides that were evenly matched and contained quality in all positions, no quarter asked or given but also played in an excellent spirit, a game played in a good honest spirit and a tremendous advert for under 18 rugby in the County.

Honours were even for the opening quarter with defences on top and it was clear that any scores would not come easily.

Crediton did open the scoring with some good phase ball that was moved quickly to the backs where winger Charlie Gribble backed himself to use his pace and strength to break the defence and score. Tom Gray added the conversion for a 7-0 lead.

The Bideford response was an effective one as they too ran the ball and found space out wide to score, the conversion failed but Crediton’s lead was cut to two points.

The game continued from end-to-end with defences cancelling out any threats. However, Crediton did increase the lead when once again the forwards set up some good quick ball and centre Charlie Conner powered his way through to touch down, Gray landed the conversion for a 14-5 lead at the interval.

In the second half Bideford always looked threatening with ball in hand but defensively Crediton were pretty solid but neither side could gain the upper hand. Eventually after some phases in the Bideford “22” it was home No 8 Ben Harris who spotted a gap and raced in from 15 metres, Gray added the extras for 21-5. Once again though, Bideford rallied and counter attacked down the left to score an excellent try in the corner, the difficult conversion just fell short.

An 11 point lead in the closing stages meant the visitors would need two scores to win whilst Crediton needed one more try for a bonus point and that came courtesy of a driving maul which saw Harris claim his second of the game. Gray converted and that was more or less it for the day.

A good game with both sides showing that their respective Clubs have some good players coming through.

On Saturday, March 4 the First XV will travel to Sidmouth and hopefully will get back to winning ways. The Quins host Sidmouth Seconds in the penultimate league game.

The Thirds travel to Exeter Engineers whilst the Colts host Devonport in another Colts Cup fixture.

Paul Harris