DEVONPORT Services moved off the foot of National Two West after picking up two valuable bonus points from their longest trip of the season.
After heavy defeats against much-fancied Taunton and Redruth, Services narrowly lost 34-31 away at Cheshire side Lymm on Saturday.
However, although pleased to have returned with some points, which has moved them up two places in the standings, Devonport head coach Ben Russell felt it was a ‘bitter pill to swallow’ as he felt they should have won.
“We were the much better side, but it was just small moments when we made those little errors or chose the wrong decision,” he said.
“We went from 22-12 down at half-time to leading but then just let in two soft tries.”
He added: “It is a massive positive that we came back with two points, but it really should have been five.
“But the performance was so much better.
“Our actual general play was very good. We ripped them apart at times, but our set-piece let us down a bit.
“We just have to make sure when we have opportunities to put a game to bed that we take them and win.
“Yet you can’t say that on the day we didn’t perform – as we performed really well.”
With Harrison Coonick, Henry Gliddon, Dan Lilley and Jake Bond unavailable, Services handed debuts to Royal Marine backs Fergus Wood and Harry Pickett, while Cal Arnold and Shaun Crouch were given their first starts for the club in the pack, with scrum-half Henry Clement back.
Devonport had taken an early lead courtesy of full-back Charlie Groves, but the home side hit back with tries by Henry Wasdell, Tom Manaton and Andew Williams, with Tom Shard kicking two conversions and a penalty.
But Clement scored just before half-time to close the gap to 10 points.
And two tries within three minutes after the interval courtesy of Clement and Finn White, with Sam Brown converting the latter, put the visitors into the lead after 51 minutes.
However, Lymm centre Jack Reynolds scored two tries within five minutes and Shard added a penalty to put the home side back in pole position.
Replacement Dan Goldstone, who was making his return to the 15-man game after a lengthy absence, scored nine minutes from time to give Services hope of snatching the victory, but they just could not manage it and had to settle for two points.
Regional Two South West side Ivybridge enjoyed a final pre-season boost by beating higher league Sidmouth 26-14 at home on Saturday just seven days before their campaign starts.
Aaron Williams scored two tries for the Bridgers, with Joe Owen and James Cantin also touching down and Harry Newman-Wild kicking three conversions.
“It was a really good result for us,” said Ivybridge head coach Steve Atkinson.
“We had a really good 30 minutes and then I think they realised that we wanted to chuck the ball around and play a bit quicker and then they started to slow us down a little bit and we didn’t quite react to it well enough. But these are those little work-ons for us now.
“It was nice to get another hit out with lads that are predominantly going to be in the first XV. I was really happy with it.”
Western West side Saltash brought an end to their pre-season campaign with a 12-7 away victory at Bude on Saturday.
After a scoreless first half, the home side took the lead after the interval, but the Ashes came back to win with a long-range try by Henry Taylor and then one from the experienced Ryan Cruickshanks. Dylan Davies added a conversion.
Saltash’s Western West rivals Devonport Services II played a three-team fixture with Tavistock and Plymouth Argaum at Sandy Park on Saturday.
Tavistock had originally been due to play OPMs and Old Techs, but Services II and
Argaum ended up playing instead.
Services II took a squad of 30 to Tavistock and they fielded different sides in their two games.
They beat Tavistock 19-0 before losing 22-0 to Argaum, while Tavistock overcame Argaum 19-0.
All the teams were pretty happy with the run-out ahead of the start of their league seasons.
It was Argaum’s first and only pre-season fixture and new head coach Martyn Hendy was happy with how it went.
“The boys did really well,” he said. “It was just good to get some of the stuff we have been practicing all summer on to the pitch.
“Our game (with Liskeard-Looe) was cancelled and so we had to find an opponent at short notice and change the venue, which took a bit of effort, but we had to do it to get a game in.”
Tavistock’s head coach Leigh Puttock said: “We were really pleased. We had a fair few players not available, so we had a lot of ‘new seniors’ playing.
“I wasn’t interested in the scores or scorers; I was just interested in the performance.
“In the first game, Services beat us. They were very strong, but we actually defended very well and they had to really work to break us down. That is something we have been working on.
“Then we played Argaum, who had picked up a few injuries, so we gave them some of our players and beat them.
“I say we are 85 per cent ready now (for the new season), which is about as good as we can get.”
Tavistock’s Counties Two Devon rivals Plymstock Oaks also had a final run-out on Saturday as they beat Launceston II 35-28 at Horsham Fields.
Tom Richards, Joel Moran, Alex Chapman, Toby Moss and Olly Whitfield scored tries for Oaks, with Matt Neyle and Tom Fitzpatrick adding the conversions.
“It was a bit of a scrappy old affair,” said Oaks coach Mike Lewis. “The whole summer has been pretty dry so I don’t think anyone has really trained with a wet ball. With the drizzle, both teams struggled a bit to hang on to the ball.
“It looks like a barn-stormer, finishing 35-28, but it was a bit of a stop-start affair and neither team could really get into a flow.
“We tried to mix it up a bit as we just wanted to see different combinations.”