Devon U16s Cup round 1

Okehampton U16s 40

Plymstock U16s 36

LAST year?s cup winnners entertained a large Oaklands crowd on Sunday to a wonderful display of running rugby.

Okehampton were five points down in the opening minutes with the Plymstock wing outstripping the home defence. Okehampton then worked downfield and from third phase put the ball wide. Centre Jack Preston put in a perfectly timed pass to give Jonny Hutchins the gap, through which he sprinted for the try.

Shortly after the restart fly half Andy Herrod-Taylor saw the flat defence and placed a high box kick behind the Plymstock backs into the corner. A lucky bounce wrong-footed the defenders and found the arms of Phil Woods who crossed unopposed to see Okehampton 12-5 in front.

Plymstock replied with two quick tries to lead 19-12. Okehampton relied more upon first phase and drove a lineout downfield. Three rucks later Sam Turner dived over for an important try to tie the scores at half-time.

In the second half Plymstock went two tries up, capitalising on loose play and poor cover defence before Richard Bolt dug Okehampton out of a hole with an excellent blindside breakaway try in the corner. Plymstock came back with a breakaway try from their own 22 to lead 36-26 with 12 minutes remaining.

Bolt again rescued the home side with another try after a strong individual run.

At three points down Okehampton dug deep and drove upfield. A quickly taken penalty was run just short of the try-line by Simon Cox and three rucks later Dean Beardon dived over for the winning try.

Andy Herrod-Taylor converted five of the six Okehampton tries.

These points proved invaluable and were the diffference between winning and losing as Plymstock only managed three out of six. Okehampton survived five minutes of pressure from Plymstock before the final whistle.

Okehampton?s forwards worked hard, West and Lawrence dominated the lineout and Chris Searle, Simon Cox and Sam Turner worked well in the loose with Gary Sizmur giving 100%. Dan Hudson found his jumpers well with Tom Bird taking the short ball. The backs were inventive in attack with Stewart Down attacking from full back and the half-backs directing assault after assault.