OKEHAMPTON RFC bounced back from defeat to Winscombe with a comfortable, albeit at times frustrating, victory over North Petherton, writes Adam Holliday.

Oke welcomed back ex-coach Matt Tichas as he bought his Pethy side to town, looking for their first away win of the season.

After a well-attended pre-match lunch, the crowd gathered in the rain as Okehampton kicked off with the wind and slope advantage.

It didn’t take the home side long to score their first try, Saul Holliday picking up from the base of a five-metre scrum to cross with barely a minute on the clock. Skipper Luke Simmons added the extras.

The hosts were completely on top in the early stages and soon extended their lead. An attempted kick out of defence from the visitors flew straight into the chest of Okes left-winger Marley Parker.

Parker gratefully accepted the gift with the youngster racing in for his side’s second try of the afternoon. Simmons converted again to take the home side 14 points ahead with only five minutes gone.

At this point, it looked like it would be a long afternoon for visitors.

The first quarter belonged to the hosts and they extended their lead to 21 points after 18 minutes. This time after several phases, with space identified on the left, a cross-kick found flanker James Stevens in acres of space to touchdown midway out. Another successful Simmons conversion followed.

Now feeling comfortable, midway through the half, Okes began to switch off and concede numerous penalties. Many for high tackles, some of which some of which were borderline at best. The home side lost Brad Curtis to the bin as a result.

Pethy grow in confidence, monopolising possession and territory until the interval arrived.

Weather conditions throughout the match were difficult, but the sun did break through at times. However, Okehampton’s start to the second half was far from bright.

They struck first in the second half with a good score to reduce the deficit to 14 points and encourage hopes of a comeback.

Oke put on their replacements, but the pattern of penalties continued. They did get into scoring territory on a couple of occasions, but a penalty concession and then an intercepted pass put paid to those opportunities.

This was certainly an attritional game and it took until the last five minutes for Okey to collect their bonus point try. They ran the ball from deep and short, opting for sharp passes instead of the long loopy variety. This eventually saw full back Leon Horn released and he sped over to seal the match. Simmons added a good conversion. The match ended shortly after with little further incident.

All in all, it’s a valuable five-point win but not one of Okehampton’s finest, however that’s two wins from three and a solid start to the league campaign. With the welcome return of several players this week, hopefully Okes can maintain momentum moving forward.

Next Saturday sees a break from league action as the Okes travel to Newton Abbot for a cup tie, your support as always would be much appreciated.

Brett Luxton, who replaced Tichias as Okehampton coach during the close season, said although the elements were helpful there was more to winning the game than a following wind.

“We were lucky with the conditions as we had a strong wind on our backs in the first half, and it died down in the second half.

“Playing wise, the forwards provided a good platform from both scrum and line-out and our backs looked dangerous, especially on the counter-attack.”