DEVONPORT Services head coach Ben Russell was disappointed with his side’s second half showing as they went down 43-5 away at Old Redcliffians on Saturday in National Two West.
Injury-hit Services, missing James Hocking, Richard West, Joe Stansfield, Harrison Coonick, Mark Friend, Mike Rickard, Toby Knowles and Matt Neyle, battled hard in the first 40 minutes and were only 14-5 down at the break.
But Old Reds, who lost two props with injuries early on meaning the game went to uncontested scrums, took total control second half to run in four more tries and extend their winning home streak to 12 league games.
“In the first half it was 14-5 and we’ve really fronted up and left some points out there,” said Russell.
“But we imploded second half. We gave them every try possible, including two interceptions. To be fair, whenever we’ve made a mistake, they have pounced on it.
“It was nowhere near the level I expect us to be or where we should be at. The players got told to look in the mirror.
“It’s a big week at training as if we don’t turn it around we could get pumped by Luctonians.”
Services had to make a host of changes to their side and handed debuts to former Topsham teenager Bertie Fordham and Royan Navy winger Henry Gliddon.
“Bertie Fordham who came in as an 18-year-old in the back-row was man of the match,” said Russell. “He was unreal. Henry Gliddon also had a good debut, really getting stuck in. Some boys really did give it their all.”
Russell has not ruled out trying to strength his squad, with some many key players injured.
Tom Davies scored Services’ only try at Scotland Lane in the 27th minute following a good driving maul.
Lewis Oakley had opened the scoring for Old Reds with a converted try and just before the break he scored again to make it 14-5.
After the interval, Jonathan Cook, Tom Bryan, Tirion Bowen and Harry O’Donnell added further touch-downs for Old Reds, who were in the top four last season.
REGIONAL ONE SOUTH WEST
IVYBRIDGE suffered an afternoon to definitely forget as they were hammered 78-8 away at newly-promoted Royal Wootton Bassett on Saturday.
The last time the Bridgers conceded 78 points in a game was away at Camborne in 2022, but that day they did at least get 18 points in reply.
In Wiltshire, they had to make do with just one Will Peakman try and a penalty from Ben Fallows.
Head coach Davy McGregor said the result should ‘hurt’ the players, but he was keen to take responsibility.
“I accept full responsibility for the result and for not preparing the lads properly,” he said
“As a group we will get better for next week.”
He added: “It was just a day where we didn’t show up.
“Royal Wootton Bassett have a decent side, who are well-conditioned and a very direct young group.
“But our mistakes and our error count were on the Richter scale unfortunately.
“We just didn’t have the maturity when something was going wrong to be able to change the flow of the game and do something different. We kind of compounded our errors, which was a little bit frustrating as it was a bit of a backwards step to where we have been in the last three weeks.
“They were very clinical and very direct and just looked like a group with more cohesion than us.
“I think the biggest learning curve is that in this league teams will absolutely crucify you.
“From our perspective, it should hurt and be an embarrassment.
“As a coaching group and a group of players we just have to take it on the chin. That’s life and we’ve got a whole seven days to get better.”
COUNTIES ONE WESTERN WEST
PLYMSTOCK Oaks kept up their impressive start to the season in Western West with a 63-17 home victory over league newcomers Redruth II.
That followed on from a 75-15 victory away at Bideford and a 45-3 success at Tavistock.
Saturday’s win was probably more impressive as it came without the likes of Corey Jamieson, Alex Chapman, Joe Brearley, Matt Jackson, Mac Lewis and Joe Donnolly.
“It was a really good win, especially as we had to shuffle the squad,” said Oaks head coach Lewis Paterson.
“Matty Jackson our winger was ill on the morning so we only had two on the bench. We had a flanker on the wing and Duncan Bibby, who is usually our centre, was at full-back. Peter Keanie who was our eight was at centre so it was a bit of a shuffle, but still really good. It just shows the versatility in the squad.
“To be fair, Redruth played some cracking rugby. We were both tapping and going and both very high tempo, but I just think we probably just out-muscled them a bit physically.
“When we were in their half or 22, we were the team coming away with points more efficiently than they were.
“The score was good one for us, but didn’t really reflect Redruth’s valiant effort. They weren’t a bad side. They were quite a young side with an incredible 10, who I think plays for England Deaf.
“We were just dominant physically and in the set-piece.”
Oaks went 21-0 up after 33 minutes with tries by Paterson, Bibby and Keanie, which were all converted by Paterson.
Redruth II pulled one back before Robbie Hall scored Oaks’ fourth before half-time to make it 28-7.
After the interval Paterson, Ben Turua, Harvey Courtis, Keanie and Ollie White added further tries for Plymstock, who were playing their first home match of the season.
Tavistock finally got their season up and running with an important 36-14 home win over fellow strugglers Bideford on Saturday.
Tavistock had trailed 14-7 at the break but took control of the match in the second period to pick up a vital five points.
After losing 74-7 away at Barnstaple II and 45-3 at home to Oaks, it was a much-needed win for Tavvy, who were able to welcome back the likes of Toby Teague, Joe Burbage, Richard Cann, Jack Osborne, Andrew Schuttkacker, Martin Budden, Chris Watts and Andrew Craddock.
“It was completely different this week,” said Tavistock player-coach Hammy Kerswill.
“Having that experience back just helped other players to play their normal game.”
Tavistock had to be patient and their only try of the first half came from Ethan Lamerton, who broke two tackles to score under the posts from the 22.
But after the break, Lamerton got another one to go with two from Liam Watts and one apiece from Kerswill and Budden.
“They tired and we actually played a bit of intelligent rugby,” said Kerswill.
“We have a lot of skill-set and physicality but we don’t always make the best decisions at times, but once we got a score up we controlled the game quite well.
“The last 10-15 minutes we were very much in control with possession, and we used it well.
“It was a good game for people to watch as it was a controlled win. It wasn’t scrappy and we weren’t lucky to win – for the majority of the game we looked the better side.”
He added: “We had a good platform as our set-piece was 10-fold better. We were 100 per cent with our line-outs and lost one scrum due to a penalty but won two against the head so that was a good platform to play off.
“Sam Palmer, who has come up from the colts, made his debut last week and he was excellent, especially at the back of the line-out.”
Kerswill also had praise for fellow youngster and debutant Will White.
“He produced a key moment,” said Kerswill. “Freddie Fuller put a kick through and he chased and tackled the lad into touch just outside their 22 and that was a big turning point. That really got us on the front foot for the remainder of the game.”
Kerswill hopes that getting a win will be a bit of a springboard for the team, that has struggled for availability in the opening weeks of the season.
“A lot of the boys straight after the game were already talking about next week,” said Kerswill.
“Hopefully, we have bridged that gap a little bit.
“It is still going to be tricky some weeks as the depth isn’t there like it has been for the last how many seasons where we have had twos players who are willing and good enough to step up.
“But we are hoping to get a bus next week to Wivilscombe and we are hoping to have Jack Easton available before he goes to Australia.”
COUNTIES TWO DEVON
AN injury-time penalty by Rob Hall secured Tamar Saracens a dramatic 15-14 home victory over city rivals OPMs at the Parkway on Saturday.
It was Sarries’ second successive home win since earning a surprise promotion, but for OPMs it was the second time this season they had lost a derby match to a last-gasp penalty, having gone down 15-13 at Argaum on the opening day.
A draw would have probably been a fair result on Saturday as neither side really deserved victory in a poor game that lasted nearly two hours due to the number of stoppages and time added on by the referee.
Both sides made a host of mistakes, struggled with line-outs and gave away far too many penalties.
“It was one of those games where if you win it there is so much relief, but if you lose it then you are angry for three weeks,” said Tamar Saracens head coach Mike Lewis.
“And that would not be because we hadn’t tried, but because we hadn’t quite put it together.
“It was almost as if that was the first game of the season.
“It was a bit of a rusty game.
“Yet it was the third game in the season and we need to be more accurate around the park.
“Both teams grafted hard – and that’s the real positive. Both teams came off out of breath, out of energy on a hot day. We played almost an hour in the first half and nearly a 50-minute second half and so every play from both teams were spent.”
He added: “A win is a win is probably the best way to call that.
“We’ve had a bit of a turbulent few weeks with boys on holiday and stuff and we haven’t had the consistency at training and in games, although the last few sessions have been better, but it’s not quite been good enough to bring everyone together and be singing off the same hymn sheet.
“But we’ll grow and we’ll build. We know we have some bigger and better teams to face and so have OPMs and we both know we need to get better for those games.”
OPMs head coach Andy Williams, whose side had been 14-5 up at half-time, said: “We had the better of the first half and they had the better of the second half.
“We talked all week and all season about playing how we want to play and putting our systems together and we started to do that in the first half, but in the second half we didn’t help ourselves at all with penalty count, with decisions we made and looking after the ball.
“All credit to Mike and Sarries, they came back and the scoreboard says they beat us by a point.
“It was the same against Argaum. It is really hard for the boys when we turn up week-in, week-out and games are dictated by the standard of refereeing.
“I know games would not go on without them, but one week we’ll talk to the ref about certain things or they’ll say we can do this but other weeks we can’t. There does not seem to be a consistent approach from the referees that we have.
“It is just their interpretation, and I just wish we had a bit more clarity on what is what really.”
OPMs are still waiting for their first win of the season.
“The longer you go the harder it becomes, but we have a good bunch of boys,” said Williams.
“We are missing players with injuries, as most clubs are, but we will bounce back.
“We’ve got Exmouth II at home, which is a massive game for us now.
“But last year we did not have the best of starts but we came back and in December, January and February we put together some really good performances to get us where we finished – comfortably in the top two-thirds.
“We know we are not quite match fit at the moment and I think the boys accept that.”
Playing with the wind in the first half, OPMs took the lead with a penalty by Matt Smale on 10 minutes after Sarries lost the ball trying to play out of their own 22.
The Old Boys had line-outs and scrums in dangerous positions but could not make them tell.
Matt Smale missed a penalty on 28 minutes before he did kick one two minutes later after visiting number eight Zak Mussa had brilliantly run back Sarries’ drop-out.
OPMs were then reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when hooker Chris Carpenter was yellow-carded and the visitors had to go to uncontested scrums.
Tamar Saracens did close the gap to one point with a good try in the corner from hooker Adam Coutts, but they then messed up the restart and gave OPMs territory.
Matt Smale missed with another penalty attempt before Frazer Tatchell was yellow carded for the home side and OPMs then scored from the back of an uncontested scrum courtesy of the impressive Mussa.
And in the 15th minute of added-on time in the first half, Fred Smale kicked a penalty to put OPMs 14-5 ahead.
But Sarries came out strong for the second half and they threatened the try line with a good drive. Two OPMs players were ruled to have come in from the side and the referee yellow carded Mark Hardie.
Sarries tapped the penalty and eventually Josh Heath got the ball over the line for a try, which Hall converted well from out wide to close the gap to two points.
It looked like that was how it was going to stay after both teams wasted chances. Hall missed two penalty kicks and Swatton one for Sarries, while OPMs failed to finish off a glorious chance after Fred Smale broke through and they were also held up over the line.
But in injury-time, Sarries were awarded a penalty on the right. It wasn’t an easy kick – probably harder than the three the home side had missed – but Hall opted for the posts and this time he did put it over to win his side the game.
Devonport Services II made it three wins from three as they overcame city rivals Plymouth Argaum 56-29 at the Rectory.
Services II had to make a host of changes to their team that had beaten OPMs 59-5 the week before, but their backs just had too much pace for Argaum, who did more than match them up front.
Services II had been 56-17 up but Argaum did show character to finish strongly and secure a bonus point with five tries.
Tom Mann scored four of Argaum’s tries, with Tom Holliday bagging their other.
Services scored four tries in the first half courtesy of Luke Stannard, Khane Taylor-Young, Massa Tamanikairukuiovaiau and Cam Donkin, which were all converted by Leighton Stark.
And after the break, Tom West, Oli Lane, Isaiah Akinrowo and Billy Sutton added further tries for the home side, which were again all converted by Stark.
Argaum head coach Dean Avery felt there were plenty of positives from his side, who have picked up points in all their games so far this season.
“We scored five tries,” said Avery. “And I thought we played some really good rugby.
“We had the ball probably more than then throughout the whole game, which was a positive, but whenever we gave them a sniff their young guys just tore us apart in the backs.”
He added: “If you look at the three games we have played this season – OPMs at home, Withycombe at home and Services away – we never got a point out of them last year, but we are sitting with six points and should have won last week. So, I’m happy with where we are as a club.”
COUNTIES THREE DEVON SOUTH & WEST
OLD Techs made it two wins out of two in Devon South & West with an eye-catching 60-20 home win over Salcombe at Weston Mill.
It followed on from a 64-27 away victory over Plympton Victoria last weekend.
They scored 10 tries against Salcombe with Billy Evans bagging a hat-trick and Will Booth and Ollie Davey both getting two apiece, while Sam Matts, Kieran Hurrell and Nathan Webb also crossed the whitewash. Matts added the rest of the points with conversions.
“We played some really good rugby,” said Old Techs chairman David Evans. “It is really pleasing to see the lads really coming together.
“Our support running was great. It was some of the best rugby we have played for a long time.
“I think it is because the lads are committed, keen and they are a good unit as they are all friends.
“We just have to keep that availability when we travel away. If we do that, hopefully, we can have a decent season.
“It is exciting, but we’ve got to keep our heads. You have to keep backing it up every week. We’ve just got to keep taking each week as it comes.”
Ivybridge II, known as the Vandals, are also unbeaten in the division. They hammered Totnes 90-12 at Cross-in-Hand on Saturday.
“Fair play to the Vandals, they have done exactly what was asked of them,” said Ivybridge head coach Davy McGregor. “You can only play what is in front of you, but I was delighted that they put their foot to their throats and kept going.”
Hamish Harris scored a hat-trick of tries for the Vandals, with Owen Garner, Lewis Cook and Charlie Teague both crossing twice and Will Johnson, Jamie Hough, Sam Wilmington and Harry West also getting on the scoresheet. Luke Martell kicked 10 conversions for the home side.
Plymstock Oaks II had a tough afternoon as they were beaten 109-0 away at unbeaten Brixham II.
Oaks head coach Lewis Paterson said it was ‘a credit’ that they did fulfil the fixture as they were struggling for players.
“We were scratching around for players,” he said. “We had Dan Parkes on the bench and Archie Gray’s dad. It was a game we could easily have just called off, but the boys at the club wanted to play rugby and they did it.
“There are some good players in that second team. There were seven colts. It was a bit of a baptism of fire for them, but it was a good effort as we don’t want to be a club that can’t field a side and call a game off.”
Plympton Victoria were without a match, while Tavistock II pulled out of their trip to Torquay Athletic II.
CLUB MATCH
SALTASH’S first and second teams were left without league fixtures after Veor and Redruth Albany pulled out of games against them.
However, the Ashes’ second string were able to secure a hastily arranged fixture against Devonport Services III at Moorlands Lane, that the home side won 48-31.
The Ashes started strongly and went 17-0 up before going in at the break 29-10 ahead.
Saltash II went 36-10 ahead before Services pulled it back to 36-24 after 52 minutes.
Every time Saltash looked like they were pulling away, Services III hit back before they did get 17 points up before the game was brought to a premature end after Saltash player Max Frost sustained a serious injury.
Forwards Fin Jones and Fred Dover both claimed hat-tricks for Saltash, with winger Ryan Wilson getting two early on. Matty Anstis was among the scorers for Services III.
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