SALTASH and Old Techs kept their Twickenham dreams alive by claiming home victories on Saturday to reach the quarter-finals of their respective Papa Johns Community Cup competitions.
The Ashes overcame Somerset champions Midsomer Norton 36-22 at Moorlands Lane in the Papa Johns Counties Two Championship to set up a home last eight match against Gloucestershire outfit Frampton Cotterell.
Techs, meanwhile, beat Hampshire side Romsey 27-10 at Weston Mill in the Counties Three & Below Championship. Their reward is a home quarter-final tie against Gloucestershire Three South champions Avonmouth Old Boys.
Saltash are still unbeaten this season, but they had to work really hard to see off runaway Somerset champions Midsomer Norton, who did have plenty of possession and territory.
But the Ashes showed a real clinical side in the first half and were 24-7 ahead. However, they then got on the wrong side of the referee and picked up three yellow cards, including two at the same time when they were only 24-17 in front.
Yet while down to 13 men, and with everything appearing to be going against them, they only allowed Midsomer Norton to score one unconverted try.
And when they did return to 15 players they finished strongly and scored two late touch-downs to pull away.
Head coach Steve Down thought the way they dug deep with 13 men for 10 minutes was key to their win.
“I think that was the defining moment,” he said.
“The fact that we managed to keep them out helped save the game as that could have gone really bad.”
He added: “It was very tense at times when it probably didn’t need to be.
“We got on the wrong side of the referee at times, and it stopped us from playing.
“When we had 15 men on the park and we were doing our thing, I thought we looked the much better side – and we proved it in the end with the scoreline.
“But having a tough game like that will do us some good as we are not used to not having the ball and having to defend for long periods. We will learn from that and build some patience when we don’t have the ball.
“Our defence, our tackles and our attack were all pretty ruthless and pretty aggressive, so I was quite pleased with that.
“I think our first four tries were the first four chances we got, so we did take every chance.
“There was some individual brilliance, but I think what really won us the game was the team effort and how they all came together. There was lots of heart and lots of passion and the energy was great.
“We do need games like that to test us, as then our line speed gets better.
“We have got a great bunch of lads. I know we didn’t use all our bench and apologies to the two we didn’t use, but everyone who did come on, did a massive job for us and looked really sharp.
“We have got a cracking 22-man squad now and there’s people that could come in and out of that squad as well.”
Midsomer, playing up the slope first half, had plenty of early pressure, but Saltash defended really well and they scored on their first real attack in the ninth minute.
They got a penalty and went for the corner and from the line-out, player-coach Lewis Wells broke off the maul and went down the blindside to score in the left corner.
Three minutes later the prolific Will Norton scored a typical try on the right wing after Saltash had attacked really well from a short line-out on the left.
Midsomer were held up over the line in the 17th minutes and they had a number of five-metre line-outs before they did eventually score through lock Chris Harper, which Tom Rideout converted.
But Saltash responded straight away with captain James Moriarty scoring from close range after a good offload by Morton after Danny Snook had also done well. Jack Pritchard added the conversion to make it 17-7.
The Ashes did look like they could score every time they got the ball, but Midsomer did have more of it and the home side had to show how good their defence can be.
Yet just before half-time, Saltash got a fourth try with a great move from a scrum which resulted in full-back Ryan Cruickshanks breaking through the middle and touching down under the posts for an easy conversion for Pritchard.
However, in first half injury-time, the Ashes had prop Simon Nance yellow carded, meaning they had to start the second half with 14 men.
And five minutes after the interval, Midsomer cut the gap when winger Kieron Humphries gathered a cross-field kick to touch-down on the right and Rideout added the conversion.
Decision after decision seemed to be going against Saltash at this point and Rideout cut the gap to seven points with a penalty on 54 minutes.
Then midway through the second half, the home side had back-rowers Ryan Rayner and Phil Eatwell sin-binned within seconds of each other, leaving them with a mountain to climb.
Saltash defended well with 13 men, but eventually Midsomer’s pressure told when their scrum pushed back the six-man Ashes pack with number eight Joe Button touching down. But fortunately for the Ashes, Rideout did miss the tough conversion, so the visitors trailed 24-22.
When they did get back to 15 men late in the game, Saltash thought they had scored with Moriarty going over in the clubhouse corner, but the home crowd were left stunned when the referee disallowed it for a forward pass.
But the Ashes pushed Midsomer off the resultant scrum in their own 22 and they flung the ball wide quickly for Morton to go over in the right corner and make it 29-22.
And in injury-time, hooker Rob Walsh wrapped up the game by going over in the left corner after Saltash did well to turn Midsomer over.
After the match, Saltash were presented with their Counties Two Cornwall winners’ plaque.
Sammie Matts was the star of the show as Old Techs produced an impressive second half to beat Hampshire side Romsey 27-10 at Weston Mill.
Matts scored 22 of Techs’ points on the day, scoring two tries, kicking three conversions and two penalties.
The teams had been level at 10-10 at half-time, but Techs, who were missing a number of players, including influential lock Ollie Davey, pulled away in the second period.
Romsey, who had Tyler Beardsley scoring the game’s first try, were not helped by losing prop Ian Milanak after he picked up two yellow cards.
“It was mainly all us in the second half,” said Techs chairman David Evans.
“We were strong up front and our scrummage dominated.
“Getting through to the quarter-finals is really good for the club.
“We are very happy. There’s a really good feeling around the club.
“We have had a really good season and we still haven’t lost to a first team. The only teams we have lost to have been strong second teams.”
Matts scored one try, one conversion and a penalty in the first half before scoring Techs’ second try, which he also converted, in the second period to go with a penalty before winger Jack Williams scored a try near the end that Matts also converted.
There was Papa Johns disappointment for Tamar Saracens who were beaten 42-21 at home by South Molton in the Counties Two South Shield competition.
Sarries had found themselves 28-7 down at half-time, with Jason Stead scoring their only try in the first half, which was converted by Rob Hall.
Robbie Fowler cut the gap after the interval with a converted touch-down, but South Molton went 42-14 ahead before Hall scored near the end for a try he also converted.
“We were struggling this week to get a team, but we managed to get 20 on the pitch, which was good,” said Saracens’ retiring director of rugby Pete Lethbridge.
“I would say they (South Molton) probably had their full strength side out and their 10 was outstanding. Good luck to them in the next round.
“We ran out of legs a bit. We had some older boys come in and they hadn’t played this season.
“It was a completely different team we had out to the cup final but all the boys put in all the effort they could for 80 minutes on a hot day.
“It was a bit of a flat ending to finish with, but we fulfilled the fixture and the boys put their all in. We did finish the game with the last try.
“Overall, it was a bit disappointing, and it was a bit of an end of an era for me and with Mike moving on. It is a bit of a transitional period for the club. We’ll see what happens, but I’ll be watching from the balcony with a beer and just relaxing a bit.”
NATIONAL TWO WEST
DEVONPORT Services did finish bottom of National Two West after they were beaten by fellow relegated side Bournville 47-29 at the Rectory on Saturday.
Services went into the game knowing they could overtake their Birmingham opponents if they could win, but they had a nightmare first half and trailed 35-10 at the break.
They did get it back to 35-29 in the second half, but Bournville pulled away late on.
“When you are 35-10 down at half-time it is never going to be a good day,” said Services head coach Ben Russell.
On what went wrong in the first 40 minutes, Russell said: “Tackling; we didn’t front up and we didn’t play the right rugby.
“They (Bournville) were physical, but if we had played our rugby we could have torn them apart.
“They scored three tries from absolutely nothing – just from one-up missed tackles.
“I think we should have had a penalty try at the end of the first half, but didn’t get it.
“Second half we played better and we came back really well and got it back to 35-29 by playing some good rugby.
“But it was just silly errors then. We tried to off-load too much and turned the ball over too much. We gave silly penalties away – our penalty count was one of the worst it has been all year.
“Cutting a long story short, we just didn’t deserve to win.
“Were they the better side? No, but we didn’t deserve it.
“It was disappointing, but the boys just weren’t up for it first half.”
Bournville went 21-0 up after just 17 minutes with Mike Ho, Nathan Decalmer and Joe Nellany scoring tries which were all converted by Jake Fewtrell.
Services did close the gap to 21-10 with touch-downs by forwards Aiden Taylor and Harri Hayman.
But converted tries by Sam Grimshaw and Reiss Price gave the visitors a 35-10 lead at the interval.
Devonport were much better after the break and Matt Neyle, Dan Lilley and James McFarlane scored tries to pull them back to within one score.
However, their hopes of claiming a memorable comeback were ended by Lewis Hall and Decalmer scoring late tries for Bournville.
Devonport Services II will play Saltash on Wednesday night in the Lockie Cup final at Plymouth Albion’s Brickfields ground, while Saltash II will play the Medics in the Ellis Trophy final.
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