Devonport Services U16s 41

Okehampton U16s 10

BOTH teams fielded weakened sides due to injury but Devonport made the best of theirs and sucked in Okehampton's defence before spinning the ball wide and despite successive tackles good support play gave the extra man for a try in the corner.

Okehampton lacked drive in the forwards and although set-piece went well with excellent hooking and jumping from Parkinson and good jumping from Medlyn and Lomax the rucking was poor. The ball was used well by Devonport to score a second try to lead 10- 0.

A period of sustained pressure by Okehampton in the Devonport 22 was rewarded when scrappy scrum ball sent centre Herrod-Taylor on the blind-side to skirt around the first tackle and through the next three to score in the corner.

The first half ended with the Okehampton full back being sin-binned for a high tackle and the resultant penalty allowing Devonport to drive through the first tackle and set up a ruck then drive over through the middle to lead 15-5 at the break.

Devonport piled on the pressure while Okehampton were down to 14 men and made the sin-bin pay to score twice more to lead 29 -5.

Back to 15 men Okehampton took a quick penalty with Herrod-Taylor driving for 10 yards before laying the ball back for Colwill and Weekes to ruck it out quickly. Passed to fly-half Wickett he dummied the opposition and accelerated 20 yards for the try.

But Devonport scored twice more to win 41-10. Wickett ended the game with a broken collar bone and is wished a speedy recovery.

Man of the match: Peter Herrod-Taylor.

Devon Junior Cup

Brixham RFC U15s 43

Okehampton RFC U15s 10

OKEHAMPTON crashed out in the first round against a side they should have beaten. Tactical naivete and a failure to recognise that atrocious weather conditions required a particular game plan, meant that for much of the game the Okes made the task more difficult than it needed to be.

In contrast, Brixham took their chances, made the best of their possession and deserved to win. Okes were frustrated that persistent offside by the Fishermen often went undetected. However, the team made too many mistakes themselves and the commitment of some players regrettably has to be questioned based on three consecutive defeats.

At half-time the score was 12-0 to the hosts. During the interval, coach John Shields demanded more determination from the players and a modified game plan. With the advantage of the strong wind at their backs, there was every chance of Okes turning the game around.

After a better start in the second half, another Brixham try against the run of play revived problems for the visitors. Tries were added by Brixham, one being somewhat controversial as the gutsy Richard Parnell was tackled off the ball as he chased a fly-hacked ball under his own posts .

In the final quarter the Okes restored some pride with two quality tries. The first came from Simon Bennett after No. 8 forward, Toby Payne, capitalised on some loose defensive play, collected the ball and burst towards the line before popping it up for the second row to score. Marcus Cobb added another going over from a rolling maul a few minutes later.