DEVONPORT Services suffered a heartbreaking 26-20 home loss to Old Redcliffians on Saturday after the visitors scored a converted try with the last play of the game.
Services had led for nearly all of the National Two West fixture. They were 17-7 up at one point and were leading 20-19 after 80 minutes.
They had the chance to see the match out when they got a penalty in injury-time and went for a line-out just inside Old Reds’ half. They just had to win the set-piece and keep the ball in that half of the field.
But they knocked on at the line-out and Old Reds attacked from the scrum. Services tried everything to stop them on their line, but eventually Old Reds’ pressure told, and scrum-half Tom Fogerty dived over a body to score under the posts and give his half-back colleague Ashley Groves the simplest of conversions to win the game.
Devonport’s players just looked stunned as referee James Milliner-Woodcock immediately blew up for full-time.
Head coach Ben Russell admitted it was a horrible way to lose.
“That was a tough one,” said a disappointed Russell.
“Their coach came over at the end and said I don’t know how you didn’t win that game; you deserved to, but we have gone from a good first 40 to a not great second.”
He added: “At 17-7 we were sitting pretty, but we gave away a soft try.
“We got it to 20-12, but we just lost composure and execution. We stopped winning our own set-piece – we threw a number of not straight line-outs and our scrum wasn’t as dominant as it was for whatever reason.
“It just came down to us. We can blame the referee for a decision here or there, but if you look at the mistakes we made, the execution and composure was just not there.”
Bottom side Services really could have done with the win to try and close the gap on the teams above them, but in the end they had to settle for just one point, which leaves them 12 points from safety.
Devonport did make a good start and George Pooley came agonisingly close to scoring in the third minute, but he just lost the ball as he tried to ground it in the right corner after a good break.
But the home side kept the pressure on and five minutes later they did take the lead when prop Rikki Bentham scored after Richard West put him free. West added the conversion to make it 7-0.
Services were dominating the scrums, but Old Reds did pull level in the 13th minute when they got a penalty and went for the corner. From the catch-and-drive move, hooker Tom McLean got the ball down and Ashley Groves brilliantly converted.
Devonport, though, were dominating territory and they went back in front on 26 minutes when they scored from a catch-and-drive move. Andy Pond was given the try, but Joe Stansfield and Bentham went over with him.
And straight from the re-start, Services scored a third try. Old Reds could not gather a high West clearing kick and Services picked up the loose ball. Scrum-half Dan Goldstone kicked that forward and Tom Davies won the race to it. He was just stopped short, but he was able to off-load to Charlie Groves, who went over in the left corner.
That made it 17-7 and it looked like that would be the half-time score, but with the last play of the half, Old Reds pulled a try back when winger Bentley Haplin went over the left corner after the visitors had attacked well from a line-out on the other side.
Early in the second half, Old Reds had Dan Thurston sin-binned after Services attacked well. West kicked the resultant penalty to make it 20-12.
But after that Devonport lost their way and started to struggle to keep hold of the ball. They lost a couple of crucial line-outs and on 60 minutes, Old Reds closed the game to 20-19 when replacement Ollie Stratton scored under the posts.
That seemed to give Services some spark again and they got some good territory, but they weren’t able to make three line-outs tell.
They then knocked on with one in injury-time that gave Old Reds the chance to attack from the scrum and eventually win the game.
REGIONAL ONE SOUTH WEST
IVYBRIDGE pulled off one of the shocks of the season by beating leaders Barnstaple 43-40 at Cross-in-Hand on Saturday.
Going into this weekend, the Bridgers only had two wins to their name all season – the last one of them before Saturday came when they edged out bottom side Chew Valley 43-35 in October.
Barnstaple, on the other hand, had only lost two before this weekend and had crushed Ivybridge 80-15 at their place in October.
But against the odds, second-from-bottom side Ivybridge picked up a valuable five points.
Fellow strugglers Chew Valley also won, which will leave Marlborough and Matson, whose games were postponed on Saturday, looking over their shoulders a bit now.
“It was fantastic,” said Ivybridge team manager Neil Thomson. “It was an outstanding performance.
“To get that result just shows how much we have improved.”
He added: “It has been building up and building up since we had a players’ meeting. The attitude in training has been superb and there’s been so much positivity coming out of it.
“They beat us by 80 points before and I wouldn’t say Barnstaple have got worse, but we just out-fought them and our penalty count was good again. Their penalty count was high as they got frustrated.
“To see players cry at the end of the game because they really wanted it, makes you quite emotional. We all want it as a unit.
“It felt like an old rugby club again afterwards with all the singing. It just shows what one game can do.
“We have to play exactly the same now every game.”
Ivybridge took the lead in the third minute when Jack Skinner drove over after pressure following a line-out.
But Barnstaple responded with a try by winger Cameron Grizzle-Johnson.
Ivybridge then went 17-7 ahead with tries from full-back Giles Clarke and one from hooker Henry Trudgill.
Grizzle-Johnson scored a second before the home team bagged a fourth courtesy of second-row Archie Mitchell after some good phase play by Ivybridge.
However, Barnstaple went into half-time leading 26-24 after Ryan Lee touched down before Grizzle-Johnson bagged his hat-trick.
The hosts went back in front just seconds into the second half when centre Harry Lakeman scored and Fallows converted.
Barnstaple were struggling to get on the right side of the referee and only the woodwork denied Ivybridge from extending their lead with a penalty.
But on 62 minutes they went 38-26 in front when Matt Grieveson did well to put Trudgill in for his second.
The visitors looked like they were going to come back as tries by Brandon Moore and Bertie Stretch put them 40-38 up with time running out.
Barnstaple, though, picked up a yellow card and with minutes to go, Ivybridge took a quick tap-penalty and spread it wide for Lakeman to score and win them the game.
COUNTIES ONE WESTERN WEST
A LATE penalty by player-coach Lewis Paterson secured Plymstock Oaks a hard-earned 22-21 victory away at Penryn on Saturday.
Paterson had been denied with two efforts he thought were tries just seconds before, but then decided to go for the three points, which was enough for them to win in Cornwall.
“Penryn is always a horrible place to go,” said Paterson. “I think they went two years unbeaten there at one time. It is a tough ground to visit.
“It was one of those games that could have gone either way.
“We slipped up in a few areas and they played well and capitalised.
“We were struggling for availability and basically had a bare 15 first team players.
“It was a tight game. Very nip-and-tuck with a lot of penalties due to the conditions, but there was still some good rugby played. It was very close all the way through.
“Yet we just did enough to keep ourselves in the game. They put a bit of pressure on us, but we withstood some of that pressure. The lads did well. We’ll take that. It was a good win.”
Paterson kicked an early penalty before Penryn went 8-3 up with a try and a three-pointer.
Oaks responded with two more penalties from Paterson to go 9-8 ahead.
Penryn kicked a penalty themselves to edge back in front, but then Ollie White scored a try for Oaks to put them 14-11.
However, before half-time Penryn equalised with another penalty and after the break they went 21-14 ahead with a try.
Ed Coombs reduced that to two points with a touch-down on 58 minutes and the game stayed at 21-19 until the final minute when Paterson kicked a decisive penalty.
Oaks stay in third place and they are now only eight points behind leaders Paignton, who were beaten away by second-placed Pirates Amateurs.
Tavistock’s match away at Redruth II was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
COUNTIES TWO CORNWALL
FOR the first time this season, leaders Saltash had to really dig deep to keep their unbeaten run going.
The Ashes surprisingly found themselves trailing 15-0 at half-time away at Perranporth on Saturday, but they turned the game around in the second period to win 26-15.
The Brewers completely out-played Saltash in the first half and a major upset was looking on the cards.
Charlie Orgill scored two tries for the home side and Kai Sale added another as they went in at the break three tries up.
But the interval Saltash team talk resulted in a positive response as they attacked strongly from the re-start.
Their comeback started on 50 minutes when Danny Snook broke through and touched down for scrum-half Jack Pritchard to convert.
The Ashes continued to increase their influence on the game and the Brewers battled hard to preserve their advantage, which was reduced when Phil Eatwell slipped through for a try, which Pritchard converted to leave Saltash just a point behind.
The Ashes eventually went in front seven minutes later with hooker Rob Walsh breaking down the left wing for a brilliant individual effort which was again converted by Pritchard.
Prop Lial Honey then sealed the five-point victory with their fourth try of the game in the final seconds.
It was a hard-earned Saltash win against a resolute Perranporth side that came close to causing a surprise result.
Saltash are now 10 points clear of second-placed Helston, who they play at Moorlands Lane next week, while third-placed Newquay are a massive 22 points behind.
COUNTIES TWO DEVON
DEVONPORT Services II bounced back from their surprise defeat by Withycombe last weekend by convincingly beating Tamar Saracens 55-5 on the artificial pitch at Keyham on Saturday.
Services II were 50-0 up at half-time, with Sam Fincham (3), Dan Beer, Jack Ryder, Olly Whitfield, Kyle Felton and Jack Jones scoring tries and Leighton Stark kicking five conversions.
Fincham then added another straight at the start of the second period, before Adam Corbett pulled on back for Sarries, who picked up a number of injuries.
“They had a really good side out and played some really good rugby,” said Tamar Saracens’ Pete Lethbridge.
“They played the pitch really well, but we didn’t start as well as we should have and got blown away first half.
“We lost Joey Pook and Ryan Deacon with injuries in the first 20 minutes and the boys were a bit disheartened at half-time. But I just said all you can do is put a bit of fight on, play for some pride and try and play some rugby, which we did.
“We got a try and the boys actually showed up second half and did their best.
“The boys showed character in the second half and that’s all you can ask really. We just have to lick our wounds and prepare for Withycombe next week.”
Plymouth Argaum made it two wins in a row in 2025 when they beat Exmouth II 27-0 at Bickleigh Down.
Second-from-bottom Argaum had only won two games prior to Christmas but now have four victories to their name and are closing the gap on the teams above them.
They would have been in ninth spot, just a point behind city rivals Tamar Saracens and OPMs had they not lost five points before Christmas for handing a walkover to Withycombe due to player availability problems.
“We turned up with the right attitude and made it two wins in a row, which is really good,” said Argaum head coach Dean Avery.
“Availability again was really good. I was happy with selection on Thursday.
“We still had the likes of Tom Worboys, Kieran Burring and Dan Smith out, which does show our depth.
“Exmouth had a really strong team as they knew how important the game was. I think they were expecting to come and put some points on us, but we didn’t let them play.
“When we went to Exmouth our line-outs didn’t function, but we did a lot of work on that during the weekend and we managed to defend their line-outs and driving mauls well and our line-out functioned as well.
“It was nice to see our backline not containing forwards and we managed to score some tries out-wide.
“All-in-all it was a fantastic day and hopefully, it’s a taste of things to come.”
Argaum scored four tries courtesy of winger Ryan King, man-of-the-match Ryan Neale, Adam Walker and Tom Holliday, with Stuart Giles, who played at hooker this week, converting two and adding a penalty.
OPMs are still waiting for their first win of 2025 after they were surprisingly beaten 37-24 at home by bottom club South Molton.
The Old Boys did score four tries courtesy of winger Tom Rayner (2), number eight Matt Gigg and hooker Chris Carpenter, but that was little consolation for them.
OPMs are in eighth spot, but they are now only six points clear of the bottom two, although they do have a game in hand.
COUNTIES THREE DEVON SOUTH & WEST
TITLE hopefuls Old Techs suffered a surprising 47-24 away defeat to Paignton II on Saturday.
Techs made the trip to Queens Park having only lost once all season, while Paignton II had lost five games, including a 55-17 defeat at Weston Mill earlier in the campaign.
But Paignton II were able to get a strong side out on Saturday and they shocked Techs by going 33-0 up at the break.
Techs did win the second half and scored four tries courtesy of Sion Norvill (2), Will Booth and Ollie Davey, but they had been looking for more than a point from the match.
The point has moved them top of the league, but Ivybridge II and Brixham II have games in hand.
“They had a really good side out,” said Techs chairman David Evans. “They were really good and really well-drilled.
“We thought we had a good team out, but they were the better side on the day. First half we didn’t turn up.
“We won the second half, but it was too late.”
Plympton Victoria were also beaten on their travels, as they went down 36-17 at Totnes.
Sid Bear and Ollie Pile scored tries for Plym Vic, with Chris Barrett converting them both and also adding a penalty.
“Their team does look a lot different to last season,” said Plym Vic’s Chris Hunt. “And we gave away five intercept passes and the penalty count did not do us any favours.
“They (Totnes) did deserve their win, but we could have made it more attractive on ourselves.
“But some of our play was good and our defence was not too bad.
“I think it was an improved performance. It just about little steps forward.”
Plymstock Oaks II who were struggling to get a team out themselves were handed a walkover by fellow strugglers Kingsbridge II.
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