Improving Plympton Victoria look forward to next season after cup heartbreak |

Devonport Services lift the Ellis Trophy (picture by Mark Andrews)

PLYMPTON Victoria team manager Chris Hunt believes the future is bright for the Devon Two strugglers after they produced an encouraging display in Wednesday’s Ellis Trophy final at the Rectory.

Plym Vic could have won the cup but ended up losing 17-15 to Devonport Services IIIs after narrowly missing a last-gasp penalty.

They had earlier seen another penalty bounce off the crossbar and another miss.

“We should have really won,” said Hunt. “We missed one kick, another bounced off the crossbar and one right at the death shaved the post.

“But we did well. We came back from 14-0 down and I was massively proud of the boys. They played how we have wanted them to play all season.”

Plympton Victoria attack during the Ellis Trophy final (picture by Mark Andrews)

Plym Vic might not have claimed a league victory during the 2015/16 season but most of their Devon Two opponents have commented on how much they have improved from previous years.

“We’ve attracted some new players and managed to keep them, which is a big thing at this level, and we have started to bond now as team. Hopefully, next season we will start putting some results in.

“We are quite a young team in rugby terms. We don’t really have any experienced old heads. Dave Oakley was playing for Services and his experience really served his team well.”

Nathan Couzens and Sam Stockdale scored tries for Plym Vic, with Sam Willmington kicking a conversion and Connor Turner a penalty.

Services fielded a mixed team of veterans and colts.

Oakley, who was not even the oldest in his team, said: “They (Plym Vic) could and should have won it at the end with that penalty but over the 80 minutes I think we deserved it. We got into a 14-0 lead but then we must have thought it was going to be easy and relaxed a bit.

“We do tend to win the Ellis Cup. We got knocked out early last year but went on to win the Pedrick Cup but it’s good to regain it again this year after winning for three years before last season.”

Jason Money scored Services’ only try with Ollie Summerill kicking the rest of their points.