Okehampton Colts 23
Devonport Services Colts 12
WITH Devonport third and Okehampton fourth in the league this was always going to be a tense match. Devonport won the toss and opted to play up the slope; Okehampton started well putting Devonport under pressure, especially in the scrums, where front row Stuart Bennie, Brad Hudson and Tom Richards were dominant.
With good ball scrum-half Richard Friend and new fly-half Tom McGratton were both finding gaps in the Devonport defence but it took 15 minutes before the first score. From a scrum just inside the Devonport half, number eight Will Hawkins picked up, flipped a quick pass to Friend who broke the first tackle and went outside the full-back to score. Jamie Stevens duly converted. More forward pressure by the Okes led to a penalty which Stevens kicked over.
From a long Devonport kick wing James Bird collected the ball on his 22, centre Rory Honeychurch took the pass before prop Bennie picked up and drove — Friend sent a long pass to centre Stevens who cut inside one defender before passing inside to full-back Jake Chisholm who put a quick pass back out to wing Bird to run in to score in the corner – it was an excellent team try. Stevens missed the conversion but kicked a penalty on half-time to end a good first half 18-0 to the Okes.
Devonport upped their game at the start of the second half and from controlled mauls had soon scored two tries and kicked one to put the score back to 18-12.
Okehampton then lost McGratton with a nasty knock to the face. The Okes now had to match Devonport up front and did so well with back row Luke Crocker strong at the breakdown, well supported by Will Heard, Will Hawkins, Rob Stepto, Mike Panton and Ricci Cobb; this frustrated Devonport, resulting in a player being sent off.
Oke got on top in the last quarter and after a spell of pressure in Devonport's 22 another quick pass from full-back Chisholm gave winger Jack Phare room to go outside his opposite number to score in the corner to seal the win.