Tiverton U 13's 5 - 38 Exmouth

Exmouth U 13s travelled to Tiverton on Sunday for their first match of the season full of confidence however on arrival found the hosts short of players so full credit to Blu Sandy & Toby McConaghy who stepped forward to pull on a Tiverton shirt. However despite a convincing win the performance in the first half was less than impressive with dropped passes and missed opportunities at the breakdown. Possibly the long Christmas break was the reason for a under par performance and the team will know they did not execute what they have learnt in training. It is often said that it is a sign of a good side, when a poor performance does not prevent a victory and even with the error strewn first half the young cockles secured a 38 – 0 half time lead. The tries were scored by Ben Dawson (2) Thomas Preece, Arron Lee, Harry Sprague & Zac Tucker and with kicking duties shared between Dawson and Richard Forrest four of the six were successful.

With a comfortable lead on the score board Exmouth Coach Mike Sprague confidently switched things at half time and offered Tiverton Ben Dawson to inject some pace on the Tiverton wing and some extra weight in the pack in the form of Harry Sprague. This then turned into a great training exercise and the Cockles then faced a sterner challenge. Generally the defence stood firm but Tiverton started to win their own scrum which gave them a platform to attack and eventually they crossed in the corner for a try which was deserved for their efforts during the match. At this level of Junior rugby it is an extremely difficult task to kick a successful conversion from the touch line but credit is due to the Tiverton player who not only made the distance, he was only denied his two points by the thickness of the upright in very windy conditions.

The second half performance was notably better than the first, possibly due to the Cockles having to work a bit harder or maybe it just was a case of needing some match time. At half time there were changes made, in addition to the exchange of loan players, with James Oldbury replacing Olly Cowley, Eddie Ford coming on at prop in place of Jack Briggs and Josh Cressall on for Stewart Masters, but 5 minutes into the second half Masters returned to his scrum half position and Cressall moved to stand off in lieu of Forrest. However Forrest was then called to replace the Tiverton full back who was on the receiving end of a crunching tackle by Preece. Cowley also returned to the field to replace Sandy who received an unexplained knock to the eye.

It was an interesting afternoon with many areas to be examined and improved on before next weeks visit of Exeter Youth to the Imperial Ground, the only side to have beaten the Cockles this season.