Devon and Cornwall league

Okehampton 34

Truro 10

TRURO were the visitors to the Okes on Saturday and came with strong hopes of an away victory and a boost to their promotion aspirations after a fine win at league leaders Penryn in their previous fixture.

What they hadn't bargained for was an inspired Okehampton side that suddenly clicked into gear and found form to produce some of their best rugby for several seasons.

On a fine bright afternoon, with a firm pitch, the ingredients were there for a fine open game, but no-one expected the first half that the Okes delivered.

The home side began up the slope and came out of the blocks at a rate of knots. Almost immediately they were on the offensive and the surprised Cornish visitors were rattled. The Okes made them pay for missed tackles as they moved into the 22 ominously, before Ali Mason bolted off the side of a forward drive to cross for the opening score after barely two minutes.

The straightforward conversion was missed, but Oke had laid down a marker of how they intended to play and they kept up the pace and intensity for virtually the whole game.

The Okes were dominating possession and were keeping the ball alive and attacking through forwards and backs alike. It wasn't long before the second score arrived, and it was young prop Nicky Martin who was to get the try. He crossed in the corner after more excellent build up play was finished with forward pressure and a drive over. Luke Honeychurch kicked an excellent touchline conversion to make it 12-0.

Oke had their tails up and the visitors appeared shell shocked. After a beautiful blind side move, man of the match Nick Martin popped up on the left wing in fine support. He showed good pace, stepped inside and crossed for a lovely team try.

Backs and forwards alike were combining well to create huge holes in the Truro defence. It wasn't long before they stretched their lead further after Nick Martin showed good awareness, speed and strength as he took a quick tap penalty and crossed after a 20 yard run to bring up a remarkable first half hat-trick. Not surprisingly the visitors then finally sprang into action as they kicked a penalty goal and right on the interval, crossed under the posts through their inside centre to peg the Okes back to a 22-10 interval lead.

Truro offered much more in attack in the second half, but Oke defended manfully as they were at times stretched across the pitch in both directions by the visitors who knew the next score was crucial. Okes extended their lead with good interplay down the right culminating with full back Gareth Espin offloading to replacement wing Rob Fishleigh. He showed good feet and finishing prowess to cross wide out to score.

Okes' last try came after centre Luke Honeychurch cut a swathe through Truro's midfield defence, and with an inside pass put the supporting Gareth Espin in for a run to the posts for the coup de grace. A successful conversion followed and a superb team performance was complete.

This was a great team performance where everyone played their part.

Promotion is now in Okehampton's own hands as they prepare to face local rivals Crediton in a crunch rearranged match at home this Saturday.

Okehampton Colts 8

Torquay Colts 0

The Okehampton pack did well with prop Stuart Bennie, hooker Brad Hudson and prop Tom Richards battling well, even taking a couple of balls against the head. Richards also put in some big tackles.

Second row Mike Panton ripped out the ball from some Torquay mauls, while flankers Luke Crocker and Will Heard tackled relentlessly as did Rob Stepto.

Number eight Will Hawking won good lineout ball to allow the Okehampton back line to move the ball around and wings Callum Ausden and Carl Goodall had some strong runs as did replacements Jamie Stevens and James Bird.

Okehampton's try came from sustained pressure in the Torquay 22, after two quick rucks the ball was moved to centre Cameron Rickerby — he timed a perfect pass to Kevin Dennis who flicked the ball on to Ausden to score in the corner.

Fly-half Dennis kicked a penalty in the second half of a very tight and intense game.

Scrum-half Richard Friend sniped well with the ball and gave the Torquay a torrid time at the scrums, while centre Rory Honeychurch put in several cracking tackles along with Friend to deny Torquay any score.

• The Colts have two league matches left to play league leaders Ivybridge on March 21 and Brixham on April 4.