IT HAS been a tough opening month for Devonport Services following their promotion to National Two West.
After four games they are still waiting for their first win after losing 51-12 at home to Hinckley on Saturday.
It was the third time in four games they have conceded 50 or more points and frustratingly for them, they did not even pick up a bonus point this week.
“Hinckley are a good outfit,” said Services head coach Ben Russell. “They do the simple stuff really well – they are physical and they all know how to stick to their game-plan.
“We weren’t out of it in the first half. It was 15-0 with five minutes of the half to go and we had defended quite well. We hadn’t really had the ball but had kept them at 15-0 and were thinking ‘yeah we are still in this’, but they scored just before half-time.
“I said to the boys that it wasn’t as bad as Redruth when we were 40-odd points down, but it was just errors that had a knock-on effect.
“You can’t doubt the lads’ commitment and effort to get around the park, but we just weren’t good enough on the day.
“We knew it was always going to be a tough start to the season.
“When you look at how the league is shaping up, there are going to be certain teams at the bottom and certain teams at the top and some teams who will sit in the middle happily.
“At the moment we are one of those teams at the bottom.
“We just have to keep trying to get better and better and try to pick up any results we can and pick up bonus points.
“We created loads but just took the wrong options.
“It was a bit deja-vu as we can’t afford these errors and mistakes.”
Services went in at half-time 22-0 down, with Samuel McNulty (2) and Travis Bennett-Allcock scoring tries for the visitors and Tom Addison kicking two conversions and a penalty.
After the interval, Hinckley scored three early tries courtesy of Oliver Bee, McNulty and Alex Catcheside to go 41-0 up.
Services pull one back courtesy of Henry Clement before Addison kicked a penalty for Hinkley.
Debutant Charlie Crawley scored a second try for Devonport after replacement Ben Whysall had taken a quick tap penalty.
But Hinckley topped the half-century of points in the final minute with Evan Carey touching down.
REGIONAL TWO SOUTH WEST
IVYBRIDGE made a great start to their Regional Two South West season by beating last year’s runners-up Tiverton 24-22 at Cross-in-Hand.
Last season Tiverton had scored a last-gasp try to beat Ivybridge 41-38 in a match that stuck in the home side’s mind for the way the visitors celebrated.
But it was the Bridgers who edged a tight affair this time around thanks to tries by Jack Skinner, Adam Lilley and Angus Harrison and three conversions and a penalty from the boot of Harry Newman-Wild.
“It was really, really good,” said Ivybridge head coach Steve Atkinson.
“And it was a good back and forth game, with both sides wanting to play rugby and win.
“They slowed us down really well, but once we got some quicker ball, we were better in the open.
“But fair play to them; they obviously knew we wanted to chuck the ball around a little bit, but I’m very happy.
“You could really tell that some of the younger lads had had a year of men’s rugby under their belts.
“It was nice to get this game out of the way as Tiverton will probably be favourites after what they did last season.”
COUNTIES ONE WESTERN WEST
DEVONPORT Services II picked up three valuable away points on their debut at Western West as they drew 29-29 away at Redruth II.
“That’s a cracking result,” said Services head coach Ben Russell. “If you had offered us three points away at Redruth on the first day of the season we would have taken that.”
Services II were trailing 15-5 at half-time but came back really well in the second period.
Jacob Price, Alex Lynch, Stu Giles, Brad Lumley and Isaac Venner scored tries for the visitors, with Venner also kicking two conversions.
Saltash, though, returned from Cornwall’s heartlands empty handed after they lost 29-10 to a strong Camborne II side at the Recreation Ground.
Camborne’s second team included former Devonport Services forward Harri Hayman, as well as Robin Wedlake, Shaun Buzza, Chris Fuca, Andrius Zacharovas and Sam Rodman, who have all played for Cornwall and played much higher up the rugby pyramid.
But Saltash, who gave three teenagers their debuts in the first team squad, put up a really decent effort against their more experienced opponents and at half-time they were only trailing 7-3.
Jack Pritchard kicked the Ashes’ first half points with a penalty on 18 minutes after Camborne had scored a converted try on seven minutes.
The Ashes’ half-time team talk must have had some impact as from the restart debut winger Henry Taylor went off on a run from deep in his own half and after some great inter-play lock James Sutton scored under the posts for a memorable try. Pritchard added the conversion to put Saltash in front.
But Camborne hit back with a converted try of their own on 51 minutes to take a 14-10 lead, which they extended to 19-10 after 66 minutes.
Their forwards then scored two tries from close range to seal the win and the bonus point.
COUNTIES TWO DEVON
PLYMSTOCK Oaks scored six unanswered second half tries to overcome a stubborn Brixham II side 52-20 at Horsham Fields on Saturday in front a bumper crowd.
The newly-promoted visitors had led 20-14 at the break with the new-look Oaks team guilty of trying to over play in the first period.
The home side wasted a host of chances in the first 40 minutes and gifted their visitors some easy points, including an interception try.
But, playing down the slope in the second half, they found their try-scoring form and showed why they are likely to be one of the favourites for the title after coming down from Western West last season.
Oaks had made their opening home game a festival with nearly all their teams playing on the day and with a host of entertainment.
Coach Mike Lewis felt all the work they did in sorting that out might have impacted on their performance a bit, certainly in the first half.
“We had tried to get this festival on all week and there have been boys up here until late at night and early morning trying to sort stuff out,” he said.
“Even on the morning we had half the team working on the car park and pouring pints for people, so it was a long, long week and a long, long day.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be 100 per cent, however, we have shown what we can almost do.
“We scored 50 points and it didn’t really click, so imagine what we can do when it does click?
“That’s the silver lining we will take.
“A win is a win, but obviously we want to progress as a club and a team and we are really looking forward to what these boys can do.”
He added: “Brixham’s forwards were so strong at scrum time and around the breakdown so it was tough to try and go through them.
“Their forwards were dominant for the first 20 minutes, which meant we had to go a bit wider and maybe we went a tad too wide.
“But once they started to tire that gave us the front-foot advantage. Yet maybe we didn’t take as advantage as much as we could and there were times when it was a bit scrappy.
“Yet the best thing is we had maybe 1,000-2,000 people here from little kids to big adults. The day we had was brilliant.
“We got a win. It could have been a bit better in terms of eye-candy to excite a few more people, but a win is a win and we grafted that one.”
Oaks, who included summer signings Tyler Busfield, Sonny Rowe, Aiden Taylor, Al Thomas, Richard West, Tom Richards, Brandon Bonser and Toby Moss in their starting line-up, went behind straight from kick-off when they gave away a penalty and Brixham’s Jack Stead kicked the points.
The home side did respond quickly with Moss scoring a fine try down the left wing.
But after that they wasted a host of chances before West did finally score under the posts in the 33rd minute to make it 14-3.
However, the game got a bit feisty and Oaks lost their momentum.
Jake Jones scored in the corner for Brixham before flanker Dan Gloyns intercepted an Oaks pass to score and put the visitors in front.
On the stroke of half-time, Oaks have Taylor yellow carded and Stead kicked another penalty to make it 20-14 for Brixham.
But in the second half it was pretty much one-way traffic.
Bonser put the home side back in front seven minutes after the re-start with a try in the corner, which West converted.
Then Alex Chapman scored in the same corner before Taylor scored in the 58th minute from a clever short line-out.
Scrum-half Harry Toghill scored their sixth try and Brixham II then picked up a couple of yellow cards before Bonser scored his second and Richards completed the scoring in injury-time.
OPMs returned empty handed from their opening day trip to Exmouth II as they were beaten 26-7 at the Imperial Ground.
Alex Jewell scored their only try, with Matt Smale adding the conversion.
“We were leading at half-time, but just the youth we were playing against killed us,” said OPMs new head coach Davy McGregor.
“We had to make quite a few changes the night before due to registration issues and the GMS. We made six changes from 8pm on the Friday night to playing, which doesn’t help.
“But there were lots of positives.
“Exmouth are a young side and had that bit more conditioning that helped. That’s the difference when playing against a second team that has a first team playing much higher up.
“At half-time we were in it and we were just saying about being a bit smarter, but we conceded really early and that just killed momentum. We also had some injuries early on, including to Matt Smale.”
Tavistock were also beaten on the opening day of the season, but they did pick up a try-scoring bonus point in a 61-26 defeat to last year’s third-placed finishers Honiton.
James Lamb scored twice for Tavistock, with Ollie Plummer and Liam Watts also crossing for the home side, while former Taunton number eight Charlie Wright, Ben Kidson and Jonny House all scored twice for Honiton to go with further scores from Dean Norman, Ben Spence and Rhys Phillips.
Tavistock head coach Leigh Puttock was not that pleased with his side’s defence, but was happy that they at least showed what they can do in attack and secured a bonus point.
“It was more than we got out of Honiton last season,” said Puttock.
“Their number eight was very good, but their half-back pairing was fantastic. They are a very good team and they are going to be right up there at the end of the year.
“In the first half we didn’t defend well at all. We missed a lot of first-up tackles and we let them offload. They knew how to score off a weak defence.
“What I will say, is they also defended well and the points that we did score, we really had to earn.
“With ball in hand, I was incredibly happy, but when I asked them what we were going to be working on in training this week, there was no arguments as it has to be about tackling and defence.”
COUNTIES THREE
OLD Techs, Tamar Saracens, Plymouth Argaum and Ivybridge II all made winning starts in Counties Three Devon South & West.
Techs, who finished fourth last season, beat Dartmouth, who were relegated from the higher league in the summer, 47-18 away.
Brett Tunnicliffe, playing at number eight, finished with a hat-trick for Techs, with Sammy Matts bagging two and Kieran Hurrell and Josh O’Hare also scoring.
The visitors did have to come from behind at half-time. They had stormed into a 14-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes but Dartmouth came back and led 15-14. However, Techs pulled clear in the second half.
“We had a few missing, including some key players like Billy (Evans) and Ollie Davey,” said Techs chairman Dave Evans.
“We toughed it out and at half-time we were losing, but we just upped the intensity second half. It was good.
“Dartmouth had a bit about them and there are going to be teams go there and come unstuck definitely. They’ve got a bit of fight in them.
“From our point of view, it was just good to go away from home and start the season with a good win. It’s a good start and it’s something to build on, but it’s just about one step at a time.”
Tamar Saracens got their season off to a good start as well by overcoming fellow city side Plympton Victoria 77-0 at the Parkway.
The home side dominated the set-plays and were 41-0 up at half-time.
Dane Waryck (2), Adam Coutts, Harvey Tucker, Isaac Blasdale, Rikki Lennon and Jacob Blasdale crossed the whitewash in the first half, with Rob Hall adding four conversions.
In the second period Chad Smith and Robbie Fowler both added two each, while Lewis Tucker and Lloyd Williams-Notley also touched down.
“It’s a good platform now for the rest of the season,” said Tamar Saracens’ Pete Lethbridge. “We can only build on that. We had six or seven who weren’t available this week.
“But you have to give credit to Plym Vic as they kept plugging away for the full 80 minutes and never gave up, which is a credit to them.”
Martyn Hendy enjoyed a winning start as Plymouth Argaum’s new head coach as they overcame Salcombe 38-21 at Bickleigh Down.
Argaum were able to name a strong side for the opening match and their pack included Tom Holliday, Dan Smith, Jake Turfrey and former Plymstock Oaks number eight Ryan McKibbin, who has returned to rugby after a spell away from the game.
McKibbin certainly made his mark on his Argaum debut and was among their try-scorers, alongside Smith and Adam McCrohan.
“It is always good to start with a win,” said Hendy afterwards.
“We had good availability and even had travelling reserves, which was good. We had a big squad.
“We were always leading throughout the game.
“Salcombe did come back and scored a couple of tries, but they defended for a lot of the game. They actually defended well.
“The boys dug it out well as it was a hard game as Salcombe did not lay down.”
Ivybridge II, who have come back into the league after a season in Counties Two Devon, opened their campaign with a big 76-7 away victory at Kingsbridge II.
Ivybridge did send a strong team to their South Hams rivals, with Matt Grieveson, Luke Martell, Hamish Harris, Owen Alp and Ben Winters all starting.
“I think Kingsbridge had about six or seven players only on the Monday, but they managed to get 16 in the end, which meant everyone got a game,” said Ivybridge head coach Steve Atkinson.
Plymstock Oaks II also named a strong side, but they were just edged out 20-17 away at Paignton II, who were runners-up last season.
Lew Harris and Duncan Bibby scored tries for Oaks in a competitive match which could have gone either way. Tom Fitzpatrick kicked the rest of their points, including adding a drop-goal.
In Counties Three Cornwall, Saltash II beat Redruth Albany 57-38 at Moorlands Lane.
Archie Watts bagged a hat-trick for the Ashes’ second string, with Archie Wood, Aidan Marshall, Ross Martin, Joe Kemsley and Tom Knight also touching down.
Saltash II included new signing Billy Garratt in their side and there was also a welcome return to action for Danny Snook after more than a year out with illness. He marked his return by kicking a number of conversions.
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