U13's Devon Cup Quarter Final

Exmouth U13’s made a nervous start in their Devon Cup quarter final clash with Ivybridge at the Imperial ground on Sunday and for the first 10 minutes struggled to contain the potent back line of the visitors. The inevitable try came early from Ivybridge but they were unable to make the conversion. This seemed to be the wakeup call needed and the cockles were over for their own opening try within a couple of minutes courtesy of a good bit of team work followed by a direct run from Harry Sprague. Richard Forrest was just short with the long range conversion.

Ivybridge were fluent with the ball in hand and moved quickly which tested the home defence repeatedly and the young cockles dealt with this threat efectivly on most occasions however the pace of the Ivybridge backs gave them territorial advantage and the cockles soon found themselves defending a scrum deep in their own 22. A well rehearsed move from the visitors caught the cockles flat footed as the fly half moved swiftly around to the blind side to receive the ball from their scrum half and he crossed to restore a 5 point advantage.

The remainder of the first half was evenly balanced with the Exmouth forwards dominating when the ball was kept tight and recycled but the Exmouth passing was not as accurate as usual possibly due to the speed of the opposition. Equally the Exmouth backs were closing down their opponents space which maintained a balance of play which was exciting for the large crowd of spectators. Just before the end of the first half the home crowd were on their feet in the belief that Thomas Preece had levelled the score but he was just short and then penalised for holding on which enabled Ivybridge to clear the threat.

The first half closed with the cockles trailing by 10 points to 5 and with some encouragement from the coaching team Exmouth emerged for the second half optimistic they could turn this around. It was Ivybridge who applied early pressure but one of the best defensive performances of the season and some sublime tackling notably by Zac Tucker, kept the visitors at bay. The pendulum was soon to swing the other way and it was Ivy who had to dig deep and defend. Ben Dawson appeared to be clear away down the wing and although it is rare for any opponent to match Dawsons pace, he was caught and tackled into touch

With only a few minutes remaining a quick break from their own half allowed Ivybridge in for a third try which again was too far out to enable a conversion. Not to be out done the Cockles came forward with another attack and this time the pace of Ben Dawson left the visitors behind and he touched down and converted his own try to bring them within 3 points with only one or two minutes remaining. Despite a determined effort time was just too short to find that final decisive try to claim victory.

On balance this was a classic cup tie well fought and in good spirit by two very good sides which could have gone either way but Ivybridge will be pleased to progress to the Semi final knowing they have had to work hard for this victory. Although it was a great team effort the Coaching team selected Zac Tucker & Owen Tidball to jointly win the “man of the match” award.