Western counties (west)

Okehampton 1st XV . . . . . . . . . . 16

Withycombe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

WITHYCOMBE came to the showfield having not lived up to their usual high standards so far this season and on equal league standing with Okehampton.

With the Exmouth side missing a number of influential players through injury, Okehampton knew that this would be the best opportunity for a win in recent seasons.

The home side started well controlling both territory and possession for the first 20 minutes and should have scored on a number of occasions, lacking the ability to finish at crucial moments.

Scoring opportunities are few and far between when playing opposition of Withycombe's calibre and need to be taken when they are presented.

As it was Okehampton only came away with three points from a well struck Steve Cook drop goal, converted from a very fine angle.

The visitors response was more clinical, twice turning the smallest of chances into tries — one coming from a lucky bounce, the other from an overlap out wide. A Lee Carey penalty saw the sides change around at 6-12. Shortly after the break Withycombe stretched the lead further with another converted try.

This is how the scores remained for much of the second half until Okehampton began to gain some momentum late in the game through two Dave Bickle tries.

The first came after good work from centre Jamie Hoggins and the second after Dave Muggliston took a quick tap penalty and off-loaded well to see Bickle over the line.

But it was all too little too late, seeing the visitors deserved winners.

There were, however, some positives to take from the game, with the forwards in particular having one of their better days in the loose, clearing out rucks and mauling well.

The set piece however was well below the standard of recent weeks with balls being lost all too often from the scrummage and line-out possession being turned over.

The most important lesson to be drawn from the game was that when scoring opportunities are presented at this level of rugby they need to be converted into points every time.

This was the real difference between the sides on the day.