Okehampton U13s 5

Barkers Butts U13s 90

WHEN you consider the population of Coventry is more than 347,000, compared to that of Okehampton’s modest 5.486, you can gain some perspective regarding the relative pools feeding into their rugby clubs.

The Okehampton lads showed courage and determination, demonstrated as they were grossly outsized, by a well-drilled squad from England’s ninth largest city.

Tom, who was probably Oke’s closest player on the pitch to equivalent size, was totally wiped out by a handoff in the first half, but was on his feet and back into the fray within seconds, putting in some super tackles, as did René Sam, Morgan and Aedan.

Sam seized his chance and swiped the ball dropped by the opposition and there was a good offload by Jacob to Oscar which showed promise but ended in a knock-on which gave away a penalty scrum.

Tyler, Morgan, René and Luca kept up the pressure with a ruthless maul, and won the next scrum while Tom cleared well.

Oke’s aggression and tenacity peaked when Jacob broke through to Butts’ 10 metre line. The short attack had the Butts on their toes and even as they reclaimed the ball, a great tackle from Cameron, alongside pressure from Isaac, Luke, Tyler and Oli gave them plenty of grief.

There was excitement when the Okes passed really well (including some canny dummies), and smashed their way to the try line and Jacob, René, Tyler and Alex all savaged the Butts’ defence in successive attempts to ground the ball with incredible determination before the end of the first half.

Okehampton scored a superb try by Dan against the gargantuan tourers and held our own in the possession statistics in the second half, when Harry, Nathan, René and Jacob all made significant progress into the Butts’ territory. Despite the final result, Oke should all feel proud of their efforts which definitely hampered the challengers’ rate of progress throughout the second half. Tom Mason was awarded player of the week, setting the bar for the team with his unrelenting aggression, exemplary determination, courage and positivity.

Okehampton U12s 10

Barkers Butts U12s 20

AS with many teams in the youth section, the U12s played against a touring team, the visitors set the bar which the home team met.

Both fielded strong teams, a kick into the visitors’ half became a maul, picked up by Oke’s Adam and passed to Shortie for the opening try of the game. Throughout the game superb tackling was seen from Oke’s Josh, Ben, Ed and Shea. Toby was always around for some high ball catches; Dan made good ground on several occasions.

Barkers misjudged their kick and the ball was caught by Saul; a kick from Shea took the ball close to the tryline, but Barkers grabbed it and took the opportunity away, Craddy had a good game as scrum half, always ready to pounce. Two try saving tackles from Adam, plus good old fashioned teamwork held up Barkers ball. In reply Barkers Butts scored two tries in this half.

The second half saw a good passage of play from Oke with good passing and causing the visitors to work; the movement ended with Saul being taken into touch. Alex produced try saving tackles too for Oke.

Several held up balls by the Oke lads in this half much to the frustration of the visitors. Callum and Dan supported each other well, Lachs and Will were always working hard and Chris put a good shift in the scrums while all the forwards were making tracks into the strong defence.

Saul put in a long run, passed to Alex who was tackled within touching distance of the tryline.

The visitors scored two more although the closing try went to Oke’s Dan.

Oke U9s 3 tries

Barkers Butts

U9s 5 tries

OKEHAMPTON played host to a massive contingent of players from the Barkers Butts club in Coventry as part of their West Country tour.

Barkers started strongly, using their superior size to bundle over for two quick tries before the Oke tackling machine had quite got into gear. Oke hit back as Wilf took route one to score down the middle.

Amos’s superb tackling forced aturnover ball which was collected by Lewis, who weaved and spun through half the opposition to score the equaliser. Barkers stepped up a notch in response and ran in three more tries before slicker Oke passing got the ball to Thomas on the wing to score the final try.

Oke U9s 5 tries

Barkers Butts

U9s 4 tries

OKE’s tackling in the second match was better from the start, again with Amos leading the charge nailing anyone within reach. Both teams traded tries with strong, direct running from Mikey and Zara for Oke leading to Wilf picking up a hat-trick.

With the scores level, Toby burst through the entire opposition to score from the kick-off and then followed up with a second after some quick hands from Lewis and Amos. With seconds remaining in the game, Oke showed great strength in defence to force a seven-tackle turnover on their line and deny Barkers the equalising try.

Oke U9s 6 tries

Barkers Butts

U9s 8 tries

THIS was a ferocious affair with the tackles getting harder and higher. Oke held their ground with great determination with Jacob and Ewan particularly fearless in defence. Another fine jinking run from Lewis fed the ball to Zara who straightened up before off-loading in the tackle to Charlie, who dipped his shoulder to round his opposite number and score in the centre.

The game continued at a relentless pace as Wilf picked up another brace of tries followed by a moment of individual brilliance from Toby saw him leave the Barkers team floundering in his wake as he beat them all to score.

However Barker’s superior fitness started to show as they continued to press forward to score repeatedly. Oke kept the pressure up with further tries from Thomas and Dylan but could not quite seal the win.