Launceston Colts v Exmouth Colts – Friendly

A small but resolute Cockles squad crossed the Tamar with a view to a competitive warm up for the next phase of the Devon Colts Competition starting on 17 December.

A stern but friendly welcome from their Cornish hosts was what they got but the final score of 29-17 in favour of the hosts was a respectable performance.

The Cornish All Black forwards were larger and older than the Exmouth pack and they made this advantage tell in strong running close to the ruck as well as stealing or spoiling much of Exmouth’s line out supply. The visitors could boast a better scrum and Fulthorpe used this and the driven maul well to feed the Exmouth backs. The half time score was 10-7 as a quickly taken tapped-penalty saw Skipper Mills score the first Exmouth try in reply to two earlier unconverted tries.

Mills was given a rest by the referee with a yellow card for a late tackle early in the second period and Exmouth missed his robust contributions. Whilst down to 14, more spaces appeared in the Cockles’ defence and some missed tackles led to two converted tries. Launceston looked as though they had romped away comfortably with the score at 29-7.

Exmouth, however, came back strong and after much pressing the hooker Seagar squeezed over in the left corner followed a few moments later by his fellow front rower Hughes with a strong drive. The final score was 29-17.

Several players got valuable game time in this friendly and the whole squad earned their coach’s praise. Schunk completed his first full match and Oates and Urmston shared the Man of the Match award.

Ian Urmston