Devon Intermediate Cup
Teignmouth 22
Okehampton 28
OKEHAMPTON progressed to a semi-final meeting with Tavistock following this hard fought victory in this cup tie at Bitton Park.
Teignmouth, a league below the visitors, started strongly and attacked the Okes' line through their forwards for the first five minutes although the visitors defence was resolute.
Play then became somewhat fragmented as an extremely high penalty count against both sides began to develop. Influential Okehampton scrum-half Richard Friend became the chief recipient of the referee's ire when he was sent to the bin for 10 minutes for speaking out of turn.
Shortly after Friend's return on 28 minutes Carl Poynton, having a good game with some lovely shows of the ball, was able to score the first points of the day by slotting a penalty following an infringement at a scrum.
Another 10 minutes passed before a flowing backs' move saw winger Jake Chisholm pass inside to the livewire number nine to score in the corner. Another Poynton penalty put the Okes 11-0 up and things seemed to be going well.
However, Teignmouth were to have the final word in the first half when they moved the ball across the width of the pitch for a try from their right winger which was well converted by Dan Force to leave the score at 11-7 at the interval.
Penalties were exchanged at the start of the second period before a scrum on halfway saw Richard Friend shoot through a gap to feed centre Gareth Espin who, in turn, passed inside to flanker Simon Cox to score under the posts. The conversion gave the visitors a cushion at 21-10.
Back came Teignmouth with another try in the corner that was unconverted to leave the score at 21-15 although the game was effectively killed off when Friend took a quick tap penalty and scooted over the whitewash unopposed. Poynton's conversion made it 28-15 and despite Dan Force's converted try with the final move of the match, Okehampton has safely negotiated a difficult tie.