IVYBRIDGE and Plymstock Oaks got their pre-season campaigns underway on Thursday evening as they played out a full contact fixture on the artificial pitch at Cross-in-Hand.
The new-look Oaks side, featuring many of their big-name summer signings, stormed into a 21-0 lead in the first 25-minute period.
But higher league Ivybridge came back in the second 25 minutes, pulling it back to 21-19 before running away with it in the third 25 minutes against Oaks’ second team to win 50-21 overall.
Both clubs were happy with the run-out and the chance to get some proper contact in ahead of the delayed start to the season.
Oaks were particularly pleased with the way they played in the opening 25 minutes, with new arrival Richard West pulling the strings, alongside former Ivybridge player-coach Lewis Paterson.
“Sometimes all the things that you have been practicing can go out of the window in the first game of pre-season, but, to be fair, it looked pretty special,” said Oaks coach Mike Lewis.
“We were quick, played with tempo, moved the ball around and tested them. It was really exciting to see. We scored almost a point a minute in the first third.”
Oaks, relegated from Western West last season, had taken a squad of nearly 40 players to Cross-in-Hand and made a lot of changes over the three periods.
“We wanted to come here with a mix of players as we don’t know who is going to be in which teams this year and we don’t want to pigeon-hole people this early in the season,” said Lewis.
“We wanted to try and make sure we gave everyone an equal opportunity.
“You could see, even with the scoreline towards the end, every player was really trying their hardest.
“There were some big shots coming in and it looked really strong from us for the whole game.
“However, in that last third we just slipped off a few tackles. A few of the fresh boys who had come on were coming up against boys, who although a bit tired, had played for 50 minutes and were in the groove. It was just tough for them to get into it at the end.”
Ivybridge head coach Steve Atkinson admitted his team were slow to get going but he was happy with how they got back into it as the fixture went on.
“In the first 25 minutes that was probably the worst I have seen us play,” said Atkinson. “We just couldn’t catch the ball.
“But credit to Oaks, they came out firing.
“We did say they would come out firing in those first 10 minutes and they are no mugs. With the lads they have signed I think they will blitz that league.
“But we managed to settle it a bit and definitely in that second 25 minutes we got into the game and our ball skills were a bit better.
“I was pretty happy with it.”
Ivybridge’s squad has changed very little to last season.
“It is pretty much the same lads really. We’ve signed a hooker Cam Wallace and we might have another winger coming in.
“I don’t think we needed to bring in too many, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Oaks included summer signings Richard West, Matt Neyle, Tyler Busfield, Sonny Rowe, Brandon Bonsor, Joey Pook, Aiden Taylor, Tom Richards, Al Thomas, Olly Whitfield in their travelling squad, with a number of them starting the contest.
And the visitors got off to a dream start with a try from Bonsor following a clever West chip kick after just six minutes. Neyle added the conversion.
They then made it 14-0 four minutes later when they spread the ball out wide quickly following a line-out and Harvey Searle went over in the left corner and Neyle again added the extras.
Oaks also showed that their forwards can be a driving force with an impressive maul which West joined just in time to score and make it 21-0.
But Ivybridge came out a lot better for the second 25 minutes as Oaks made changes.
They were held up over the line in the seventh minute before they scored from the resultant drop-out with winger Angus Harris going over in the corner.
Ten minutes later they added a second try courtesy of Marcus Prout before Harris scored a second after a good break by James Cantin.
That made it 19-12 at the end of the second period.
Oaks made even more changes for the third period and Ivybridge took control.
Scrum-half Cantin scored almost straight away after Oaks had messed up the restart.
Jack Skinner and George Vertessy then went over the tries before Prout and Tom Hancocks completed the scoring.
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