Exeter Chiefs Colts 26

Okehampton Colts 11

THE Okehampton pack's commitment and effort was superb against an Exeter team that included several international and South West players.

For the first 20 minutes Okehampton pinned Exeter in their own half with good tactical kicks from fly-half Carl Poynton and a back line that could move the ball much better — with wings Callum Ausden and Darcy Heard going outside their men on several occasions.

Centres Cameron Rickerby and Kevin Dennis tackled superbly to shut down the Exeter attacks.

Poynton kicked two penalties; one from a crunching tackle on the Exeter England prop, Cory Britain, by flanker Luke Crocker.

Exeter scored before half-time to trail 5-6 and the next 15 minutes were pretty even, but the Exeter pack were starting to wear down the stubborn Okehampton eight and eventually they scored two tries.

Okehampton hit back from a scrum 30 metres out when scrum-half Richard Friend cut through between two defenders and went outside the full-back to score in the corner.

The Okes went close again when full-back Jake Chisholm again cut through the middle from half-way and got tackled just short of the try line; Exeter did manage to score again to flatter the score-line.

Exeter's Cory Britain was the one player Okehampton struggled to handle, but in the scrums front row of Stuart Bennie, Brad Hudson and Tom Richards did well with Mike Panton and Ricci Cobb locking the scrums, number eight Tom McGratton and flanker Will Heard both winning good lineout ball.