Western Counties West

Okehampton 23

Torquay 15

A COLD, crisp afternoon saw third and fourth in the league lock horns in a muscular encounter that kept the large crowd entertained throughout.

The Okes ultimately came out on top, largely due to their smaller packs' dominance in the forward exchanges.

The visitors defended well in the early parts of the match as they spent long periods in their own half.

The home pack was performing well and it was the power of their scrummage that brought the opening score. Well marshalled from the rear by Steve Alford, they drove the much larger Torquay pack backwards, allowing the aforementioned number eight to cross for the first try. Fly half Kevin Dennis missed the conversion. The Okes again entered Torquay's 22 shortly afterwards, and this time Dennis was on target to stretch the lead to 8-0 midway through the half.

The home side were now in the the ascendancy. A kick ahead from the visitors was gathered cleanly by home full back Matt Dennis. He struck a hopeful up and under and set off in hot pursuit. Torquay let the ball bounce as Dennis gratefully accepted the offer and raced clear of the defence to cross under the posts. Sibling Kevin added the conversion to put the Okes 15-0 up. Despite having a player sin-binned on 25 minutes Torquay forced a kickable penalty which was potted by full back James Wood to make the score 15-3 at the interval.

Both side made changes early in the second half and they were soon having an impact. Carl Poynton came on at fly half for the Okes, and he slotted a penalty to stretch the lead.

Torquay brought on try scoring prop Russ Morris into their front row, and he was soon asking questions of the home defence with some bulldozing runs.

Torquay were now testing the hosts' defence, and aided by some poor Oke decisions they piled on pressure in the 22. Eventually Morris forced his way over from short range for a try simply converted by full back Wood to reduce the Okes lead to 18-10.

Oke continued to hold sway up front, with Sam Turner outstanding in attack and defence, well supported by powerful ball carrying from Neil Perrot.

The Okes scrummaging again proved decisive. They drove a series of five metre scrums towards the Torquay line and at the third attempt Steve Alford bagged his brace with another well taken pushover to give the visitors a 15 point lead with 15 minutes to go. Torquay came back and a fierce maul proved unstoppable down the slope, and scrum half Alex Jeffery was credited with being at the bottom of the pile up for the final score.

This impressive home win for Okehampton maintains their unbeaten run at the Showground this season.

Top of Western Counties, West:

P W D L F A Pts

St Austell 18 13 2 3 454 231 69

N Petherton 18 13 2 3 547 245 68

Okehampton 18 14 1 3 499 290 63

Bideford 17 14 0 3 405 224 62

Torquay Ath 17 12 2 3 527 262 59