Okehampton U16s 16

Brixham U16s 12

PLAYING at North Tawton the opening 20 minutes saw Brixham move the ball around the park efficiently, pulling Okehampton's defence from one side of the pitch to the other. For a good ten minutes Brixham probed Oke before they finally broke through to score under the posts, adding the extra points with the conversion.

The restart saw Okehampton taking the game to the visitors. An infringement by Brixham was penalised on their 22 and by not getting back the required ten metres the referee marched Oke ten yards further up the pitch. Noah Nash tapped and flipped the ball to Reece Peacock who thundered through straight up the middle to dot down under the posts. Tallen Burns added the extra points to draw the scores level.

Further good work from the Brixham backs saw Oke again put under pressure. An orchestrated move again stretched the home defence wide and their winger finished the move to score in the corner. The conversion was missed.

Brixham started to lose momentum. Repeated infringements in and around the breakdown were penalised but no real advantage was made by Okehampton and the half was concluded at 12-7 in Brixham's favour.

The second half saw Oke playing down the slight gradient on the pitch. From the kick-off they chased and harried the Brixham forwards. Their backs were similarly closed down, and given no time on the ball. Player of the match Pat Ewen was notably making tackle after tackle pushing Brixham deep into their own half.

Brixhams poor discipline around the breakdown was starting to cause them problems and a penalty just outside their 22 saw Tallen Burns have a shot at goal. Just missing the three points.

Brixham started to struggle in the set pieces and the Oke scrum really started to dominate. Indiscipline again saw Okehampton awarded a penalty and this time Tallen did not miss, pulling the scores to 12-10 to the visitors. Soon after he added another penalty to take Oakie in front for the first time.

A counter attack by Oke resulted in Reece Peacock running the ball a full 70 yards up the pitch to launch yet another attack on Brixham's goal line. Yet more indiscipline saw another kickable penalty awarded to the Oke; Tallen slotted the points. The referees patience finally exhausted at the repeated transgressions and Brixham were reduced to 14.

Okehampton finished the game through good solid forward play supported by the backs, and did not allow Brixham to get hold of the ball.

The Okehampton boys effort was duly rewarded by beating Brixham, who had gone undefeated for the best part of two years.

Tavistock U16s 17

Paignton U16s 22

THIS was an excellent game of rugby with both sides evenly matched.

Tavistock had the breeze and the slope first half and  were on top  due to some good kicking from Harvey.

The first try came from the forwards dominating in the scrum and from the five yard line  the ball was skilfully moved for a touch down. The second try came for Tavistock from the half way line with Callun off loading superbly down the line for Jack and fly over in the corner.

Twelve points up at half time and it seemed possible enough. It could have been more but for Tavistock's captain getting himself tackled without the ball as he approached the try line. 

Paignton scored a well handled try in the second half and then courtesy of some generous Tavistock handling went 22-12 up.

The home side refused to give in, particularly Morgan, who bravely took on players a lot heavier than him, only to get to within a metre of the line but he still managed to go over for a try. 

Even though Tavistock never gave up they could not quite get the win.

Tavistock U15s 40

Okehampton U15s 12

WITH both teams suffering from absentees away training with the Devon U 15 squad, this was still a highly competitive game. Tavistock started brightly and maintained possession for large parts of the opening 20 minutes with flanker Steve Kirby and their other forwards challenging strongly at the breakdown.

Prop Harry Jeans scored the home team's first try with a quick pick and drive from five metres out. This seemed to give Okehampton extra impetus and they upped the pressure and secured possession to score a fine try out wide and their kicker added the extra two points with a difficult conversion. Oke continued to press and were unlucky to just miss with a penalty kick. Tavistock had the last word of the first half though with Will Gardiner racing into the right hand corner after a well worked tap penalty from Dan Willis.

In the second half Tavistock had the advantage of the wind and the slope of the pitch and clever kicking from Chris Watts drove Okehampton deep into their own half. This enabled powerhouse Ben Luke to drive over from a five metre lineout for Tavistock's third try.

Team captain Ben Milligan showed his opponents a clean pair of heels to race in and score after some great vision and a silky pass from Ollie Gandy. More forward power then led to a second score for Ben Luke before lock forward Scott Morris showed his strength and scored the home side's sixth try.

Oke never gave up and were unlucky to be turned over by Ben Luke and Billy Rowe right on the Tavistock try line. This led to another period of possession for Tavistock before Billy Rowe took a well deserved score in the left hand corner.

Okehampton battled back for their second try, but Tavistock finished as they started with Matt Birch and Cameron McKie running strongly to release their backs and neat passing from Dan Willis, Chris Watts and Ben Milligan created an overlap for Bernie Sadler to score in the corner.

Tavistock U13s 15

Okehampton U13s 12

DESPITE the recent wet weather, it was a cool, dry day, but soft under foot, for the local derby against Okehampton U13s.

Tavistock had a great start with Jude White running the length of the pitch to score in the corner. Next up, another try worked down the backs from a busy Tom Pearson in the scrum half position, through George Kharas and Ollie Noy Scott finally onto Freddie Williams, to scored the second Tavistock try down the line. Both teams were equally matched with Okehampton spending a lot of the first half in Tavistock's territory.

Tavistock led 10-0 at half time but Okehampton came out strong in the second half with two quick tries, one of which was converted to give the visitors the lead at 12-10.

It was backs to the wall for Tavistock as Okehampton pressed for the third try but the forwards secured the ball through Joe Burbage, Peter Bull and John Lord to Jacob Staig, who made a great pass to Jude, who once again ran from his own 22, the length of the field, to score his second try.

With five minutes left to play, a great throw from Tavistock's Jason Blake was beautifully taken by Archie Allen who drove forward to gain 20 yards, but in the breakdown Okehampton won and quickly moved the ball to the other side of the pitch.

It was only the great defensive tackling from Zac Gorton, George, Freddie and the whole Tavistock team, that saw them through to the final whistle. This came after a try line clearance to touch by Tom Pearson after Tavistock had stolen the ball.

Okehampton played really well as individuals, but the team chemistry did not come together for them until the latter stages of the second half, when they came alive to battle and try to make back the points.

Great tackling and defensive work by Okehampton's Daichi and Jim while Will Risdon had Alex both put in a good performance during the match in the second row. Oke tries came from Jim and Noah, converted by Nathan.

This was a great performance by Tavistock against an Okehampton team that has improved during the season. The score suggesting there are likely to be some exciting games to come between these two good Devon teams.

Okehampton U9s 45

Tiverton U9s 40

A FAR slower game than their recent meetings was played today against a team which Okehampton had not met before.

Toby captained Oke on a wet, sticky pitch. Tiverton showed good teamwork but the Oke lads did not seem to be quite on the ball with no-one playing to their full potential.

Lachs for Oke took a tackle, Callum picked and passed well onto Shea who started the pass to all hands across the pitch and Oke were unlucky not to carry it on and score. Tries in the first half did come from Adam (2), Lachs and Will.

The second half saw a change of players for the home team but the same style of play continued. Saul scored 5 tries while Ben tackled well.

It finished with a friendly between those who wanted to play with some of the Oke players agreeing to play in rotation for Tiverton. The score in this game was Okehampton 15 Tiverton 10 with two tries scored by Adam and one from Saul.

Oke players of the match were Shea and Josh.