TITLE-chasing Devonport Services were given an almighty scare away at bottom side Matson on Saturday in Regional One South West.
In a weekend of close games on muddy pitches in the division, Services just held on to win 27-26 in Gloucestershire.
It would have been the shock of the season had Matson managed to convert their fourth try and snatched the victory.
Matson had started the day a massive 52 points behind Services and had lost 78-7 when they visited the Rectory earlier in the season.
“We just weren’t very good,” admitted Devonport head coach Ben Russell. “We just didn’t turn up.
“I think maybe we thought we would just walk it. We went 10-0 up after just five minutes and then just tried to be too fancy and not run the right lines or run hard enough.
“We gave away some soft tries in the first half.”
Having been 10-0 up, Services went 14-10 down, before edging 15-14 in front. Matson, though, went 21-15 ahead in the second period before Devonport scored twice to take a 27-21 lead, only for Matson to score with seven minutes to go.
“We had the opportunity to score a try but took the wrong option and lost the ball and they went over,” said Russell. “But we hung on at the end.
“We dogged it out, that’s the best we can say really.
“All the lads know it wasn’t good enough. No-one played really well.
“Matson did exactly what we said they would do. They made it difficult and they slowed the game down constantly, but they did it well and got away with most of it and made it tighter than it should have been, so fair play to them. They thoroughly deserved their two points.”
He added: “If Matson had of scored at the end and won the game, then we’d have just said we didn’t deserve to win it.
“But we dogged it out and held our nerve. Well done to the lads for getting the five points, but it was nowhere near the standard we need to be achieving to either win the league or for next season.”
Services had Liam Jarvis, Billy Sutton, Shaun Crawford, Josh Martin and James Hocking scoring their tries. Matt Neyle converted their final try, which was the only kick they managed all game.
REGIONAL TWO SOUTH WEST
JAMES CANTIN scored four tries as Ivybridge moved up into a play-off spot after they beat Penzance-Newlyn 44-26 at Cross-in-Hand on Saturday in Regional Two South West.
The Bridgers had been keen to put in a good performance against the Pirates after losing 48-7 with a makeshift team at Mennaye Field earlier in the season.
“It was a great game of rugby in the end,” said Ivybridge head coach Steve Atkinson after Saturday’s victory.
“Penzance came with a full-strength side, so we knew they were coming to play.
“We started off well and got some really good field position early on, but they had a decent defensive line speed and caught us off guard with an interception.
“We scored one back straight away and then got another couple to take us to 20-7.
“We tried to make some adjustments due to their line speed, but we got picked off again for another interception try.
“They had a really good period to be fair, and we had to defend hard.
“They got a couple back, but we got another one to get the bonus point try and go in at half-time 29-19 up.”
The Pirates cut the gap early in the second half.
“There was a period of nerves from the sideline,” admitted Atkinson. “They had a decent go at attacking our line, but we held out and then in the last 10 minutes, the game opened up and we got another two tries to finish them off.
“Fair play to Penzance, they came to play and had a good game-plan of hard running, but I think they just threw the kitchen sink in the last 15 minutes and just ran out of steam.”
Scrum-half Cantin was Ivybridge’s man of the moment with his four tries, two of which came in the first half and two in the second.
Fellow backs Owen Alp and Adam Lilley also scored tries for the home side, with Charlie Teague kicking four conversions and two penalties.
Wesley Eddy and Oscar Marr both scored twice for the Pirates, who also had Rhys Brownfield kicking three conversions.
Ivybridge moved above Crediton, who were beaten by Okehampton. The Bridgers are fifth, just five points behind the two teams above them with a game in hand.
COUNTIES ONE WESTERN WEST
PLYMSTOCK Oaks and Saltash both suffered heartbreaking one-score defeats to increase their relegation worries.
Third-from-bottom Oaks were beaten 22-19 away at Penryn, who had started the day at the foot of the table, while Saltash were edged out 24-20 at home by title-chasing Paignton.
It was the second time this season, Paignton had just edged Saltash out by one score and it leaves the Ashes at the foot of the table, albeit with games in hand on Oaks and Torquay Athletic.
Saltash, despite missing the likes of Lewis Wells, Phil Eatwell, Lewis Woolaway, Ryan Cruickshanks and Fin Jones and having not played for five weeks, did look like they were going to upset their south Devon visitors.
Going into injury-time they were 10 points in front, but, not for the first time this season, they suffered late agony with Paignton scoring two late converted tries to snatch the victory.
The opening exchanges were even but the Paignton side looked very mobile and following a line-out close to the Ashes line crossed for a try courtesy of Jack Carlisle after nine minutes.
Saltash came back and were awarded a penalty three minutes later which was kicked by scrum-half Jack Pritchard, who had a good game.
The score remained at 5-3 to Paignton until the interval. Although the Devon side held the slight edge, they were kept at bay by resilient Ashes defending.
The second period started well for Saltash as within three minutes youngster Dylan Davies touched down in the corner following a cross-field kick and Pritchard added the extra points to give the re-energised home side a 10-5 lead.
Paignton continued to press the Ashes defence and after a scrum near the home line went over to equalise with their second try through Nyakallo Makate six minutes later.
A long penalty kick by Pritchard restored the Saltash advantage after 53 minutes and when veteran forward Steve Hillman, making his first appearance of the season, broke through to get a try which was converted close to the posts on 69 minutes the long-awaited home victory was in sight.
However, two very late converted tries by Tom Osborn and Dewald Stoop, both converted by Brad McKee, gave the visitors the win in a closely contested game.
For Saltash Tom Hoban, Charlie Knight and Dylan Davies played well but it was a familiar case of making too many mistakes and not being able to hold onto a narrow lead until the final whistle.
It was also a frustrating afternoon for Oaks in Cornwall.
They also had to settle for just a losing bonus point in their 22-19 defeat against Penryn, in a match moved to the artificial pitch at the town’s college.
Oaks did feel it was a game they should have won and were unhappy that player-coach Lewis Paterson had a try under the posts disallowed.
“There was a bit of frustration really,” said Oaks’ Mike Lewis.
“I think we did enough to win the game.
“I think on a different day with a different referee we would have won.
“They shouldn’t have had a try, and we should have and that’s just two incidents.
“They will probably say we had loads of penalties, but we should have had at least 20 more.
“After the game all our boys were so deflated as we know we should have won the game.
“We were better than them in the forwards, but they were better than us in the backs.”
Oaks were missing a host of players, including backs Corey Jamison, Alex Chapman, Charlie Watson and Jack Tweedie.
“Josh Waters, who is normally a loose-head, played hooker and had a cracking game,” said Lewis. “We had Jacob Chapman at 15 making his first cap and Coby Bradford came on for his first cap for the seniors as well and he was brilliant.
“Ed Coombs, who played centre, was fantastic. He’s been a second team player all year but did really well.
“We had Freddie Williams back from university playing, which was good as we would have been struggling otherwise.
“All these new players did really well.”
Penryn led 12-5 at half-time, with Jack Truen and Mike Fittock scoring tries for the hosts and Sean Wills touching down for Oaks.
The home side increased their lead to 17-5 with another try by Fittock before Paterson scored a converted try to close the gap to five points.
But Penryn went 10 points head with a touch-down from Oliver Mount, but Oaks did at least get a bonus point with a try by Waters.
COUNTIES TWO DEVON
TAVISTOCK were left frustrated that they were not able to pick up any points from their home match against in-form Honiton on Saturday.
The Sandy Park club lost 39-10 to their east Devon visitors, having paid for a poor opening 50 minutes.
Honiton, who have been boosted in recent weeks by the return of Charlie Wright from Taunton, went 39-0 up with tries by Rhys Phillips (3), Ben Kidson (2) and Finlay Lowman.
But in the final 20 minutes, Tavistock, who had Richard Cann making his 100th appearance, finally got going and scored tries courtesy of Vaughan Glover and Jack Easton following scrums.
Martin Budden, looking after the team in the absence of head coach Leigh Puttock on Saturday, admitted Tavistock left it too late to find their form.
“We just didn’t show up in the first half really,” he said. “
“We didn’t defend very well. We slipped off a lot of tackles in the first half, when we should have made them, and they off-loaded. Credit to them, they off-loaded very well and played quite expansive rugby.
“In the second half we put more of a performance in. It was a much better performance in the second half.”
Budden admitted it was disappointing that they had not been able to replicated the way they had played the week before against Exeter Saracens.
“We did put in a good shift for 80 minutes last week,” he said. “But this week we only put in a shift for probably about 30 minutes.
“The last 30 minutes we actually played our rugby and played a lot better, whereas the first 50 minutes we were off the boil; we certainly weren’t as good as we should have been.”
Tavistock once again had to make a lot of changes to their team with Liam Watts, Tylo Coupland, Cam Wallace and Toby Teague among those missing from the previous week.
“It doesn’t help, but it is something we have to deal with,” said Budden. “We had enough players out there to make it a similar team to last week, but we just weren’t at the races from the get-go, which is something we need to work on.”
Honiton have now won their last seven games to move up to fourth, whereas Tavistock stay third from bottom.
Tavistock’s next two league matches against OPMs and Ivybridge II will be crucial to their hopes of getting out of the bottom three.
Second-from-bottom Ivybridge II had lost 78-0 to leaders Devonport Services II on Friday night (report HERE).
OPMs are likely to have to wait until an RFU hearing to see if they will be credited with a win against bottom side Dartmouth on Saturday.
The Old Boys were 31-7 up when the referee abandoned the game in the 62nd minute after allegedly receiving abuse, which according to OPMs, came from the home side.
“We’re not sure what it means for the game, but hopefully we get the points,” said OPMs head coach James Digweed.
Fred Smale had been in fine form until the early ending of the game, scoring 26 of OPMs’ points, with Dave Broughton scoring their other try.
COUNTIES THREE SOUTH & WEST
PLYMOUTH Argaum gained revenge on Tamar Saracens for a defeat earlier in the season by comfortably beating them 31-10 at Bickleigh Down on Saturday.
Argaum had been disappointed to lose 28-7 at the Parkway in October and so were keen to prove a point against their city rivals, who had not played since January 10.
Tamar Saracens did take an early 3-0 lead with a penalty by Lewis Swatton, but that was as good as it got until deep in injury-time when Jacob Blasdale scored a consolation try with the last play of the game.
By then Argaum had scored five tries – three in the first half and two in the second.
Player-coach Dean Avery got their first from a driving maul.
He was then denied a second one on 26 minutes before Dan Smith did score two minutes later.
Jake Turfrey, playing at flanker instead of in the backs, then added their third in the 37th minute as they led 19-3 at the break.
Tamar Saracens just struggled to get going. They gave away too many penalties and got turned over a number of times at the breakdown.
Cheyenne Edwards bagged Argaum’s bonus-point try in the left corner in the 51st minute before the impressive Turfrey, back on the field after picking up a yellow card, scored his second from the back of a scrum – an area where the home side dominated.
“It was a great afternoon and the weather played ball,” said Argaum head coach Avery.
“We were aware they were a bit rusty as they hadn’t played for a few weeks.
“I think that test we had last week against Wells brought us together as a team.
“Our driving maul worked really well and we really fronted up in the forwards.
“It was a good game and we came away with the bonus point win.
“We were slightly disappointed they scored at the end. Injury-time was on the clock – I think there was 20 seconds left – and we should have just kept hold of the ball instead of kicking it back to them, and they scored.
“But, all-in-all it was a good game.
“We had a lot of possession throughout. Our scrum was dominant and our line speed was good. It just shows how much we are coming on as a squad.
“It’s looking interesting at the top, but it is all about next year for us.”
Tamar Saracens captain Adam Corbett said afterwards: “We’re disappointed. We made hard work of it and we just weren’t at the races.
“It was just one of those games were nothing worked or clicked.
“We were also disappointed with the level of refereeing.”
Sarries did at least show some character to get a try at the end.
“That was probably the only positive of the game,” said Corbett.
“That was the first time we had played in three or four weeks, and it was hard.
“It is just a performance we need to improve on.”
Argaum stay in fourth place, just two points behind third-placed Old Techs with a game in hand.
Tamar Saracens are in seventh spot, but they have played two games less than Argaum and three less than Old Techs.
Old Techs were handed a home walkover by Salcombe at the weekend, while the match between Plympton Victoria and Plymstock Oaks II had to be postponed due to the St Mary’s Field pitch been unplayable. Plym Vic had been willing to reverse the fixture, but Oaks were unable to host the game.
In Counties Three Cornwall, a young Saltash II side were beaten 57-0 away at Roseland.
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Too much reporting of coaches moaning about referreing decisions. A major factor in why ref societies struggling. Stop quoting coaches who blame their side’s poor play on refs