Okehampton U14s 10 Exeter Saracens U14s 17 THIS was not Okehampton?s day, with several players suffering from the flu, and forwards Luke Crocker and Scott Simpson both coming off in the first half. A very greasy pitch and a ball like a bar of soap made handling very difficult. Okehampton?s backs were much sharper, with centres Carl Poynton and Carl Goodall making several breaks. Goodall scored twice, but too many passes got dropped, allowing Exeter Saracens? bigger forwards to get the upper hand in the second half. Congratulations to Tom McGratton, Scott Simpson, Rob Long, Carl Poynton and Tom Browne for being selected to represent the West Devon area squad after last week?s trial match at Okehampton along with Devonport Services and Tavistock. Exeter Saracens U12s 14 Okehampton U12s 26 PLAYING against an aggressive Saracens team Okehampton dominated the opening exchanges with good driving play through the forwards. Within minutes Okehampton opened the scoring through Jordan Lee, who crashed over from five yards. From the restart Okehampton immediately opened up through their backs, good interpassing saw Matt Harding just brought down short of the line. Chris Knott, supporting well, picked up and dived over. Jordan Lee converted. Okehampton put together a good passage of play with both backs and forwards handling well. From a move on the short side Saracens held Okehampton up but recycled ball saw Jordan Lee dive over for his second try. Will Lethbridge converted. With half time approaching Okehampton relaxed and sloppy defence allowed Saracens to score in the corner, which they converted. In the second half Saracens mounted a series of attacks and rattled Okehampton. From a short penalty their large prop dived over to close the gap. Okehampton regrouped and put together a series of attacks which took them close to their opponents? line. Jordan Lee broke blind and with forward support to continue the move Peter Gillard rounded off with a well taken try. Will Lethbridge again converted. Okehampton U11s 2 Ilfracombe U11s 5 ILFRACOMBE came to Okehampton the underdog having been beaten by the under 11 team twice before. Within the first few minutes Ilfracombe had scored and Okehampton seemed to be in shock. Ilfracombe raised their game even higher and Okehampton struggled to stop them despite some good chances in the first half. Going into the second half Ilfracombe were still fighting all the way and before Okehampton could reply they had gone 5-0 up. Okehampton then pulled back. Two good goals within a few minutes of each other from Corey Burns and Matt Doidge lifted the team and Okehampton were unlucky not to score again. Unfortunately they had left it a little bit too late. Man of the Match Harry Smith. Okehampton U9s 15 Exeter Saracens U9s 0 OKEHAMPTON took two teams to Exeter, having worked hard on rucking and mauling in training. The first game was a hard fought affair, but the training paid off with Will Cooper, Luke Liversedge and Giles Heard all rucking Saracens off the ball. In defence the tackling was superb with everyone pulling in big hits. In the second half Okehampton really took charge. Giles Heard scored two tries and Bill Searle scored one. The second game produced some excellent flowing rugby, putting pass after pass together, and saw the best tries of the season with Toby Gostling scoring two and Kyren Lee scorching in for the other one. Saracens kept using their two big lads to smash through, but again excellent tackling from Josh Punchard and Callum Barber stopped them every time. Exeter Saracens U7s v Okehampton U7s 1st game 15-30; 2nd game 15-40 OKEHAMPTON came away from Exeter with two impressive wins. The first game played at a furious pace with all 11 players contributing saw Okehampton win by 6 tries to 3. The second game was even better with good passing and support play by all involved. The Okes won by 8 tries to 3. The young players and parents should be very proud of their achievements so far this season with a marked improvement in all aspects of their play. Tries by Tallon Burns (5) Brandon Horn (2) Will May (2) Robbie Bell (2) Rowan Pillivant (2) Brad Curtis.
