Merit

Kingsbridge Colts 10

Okehampton Colts 32

OKEHAMPTON came out of the blocks with purpose and from the outset the visitors earned the territorial advantage with some efficient running of the phases with well presented ball enabling the backs to swing into action at pace.

Strong runs from the back row triumvirate of Sampson, Pillivant and Abrams had the hosts on the back foot and the resultant pressure led to indiscretion from which Billy Searle scored an excellent 40 metre kick.

From the restart the visitors moved into their stride. The forwards were running the support lines well with the ball again being recycled quickly enabling the backs to work the space created to good effect with Searle, Swash and Dennis all challenging and breaking the gain line.

From inside their own half the ball was moved through the back line and from the breakdown the forwards supported well to maintain the momentum; Pillivant in support was held up 10 metres but was able to offload to Keiran Lee to touch down for one of the Oke's tries of the season; Searle converted superbly.

The visitors kept the momentum and Chris Swash was proving a real handful in both attack and defence and it was from his powerful runs that backs of Dennis, Heard and Lee were able to stretch the defensive line. Liam Sampson in the back row made a number of runs and after a short pass in midfield from Swash, he crashed through two tackles for the Okes second try; duly converted by Searle.

In a 15 minute period Oke hit the self destruct button. A series of penalties led to two yellow cards in the space of a minute leading to Kingsbridge scoring two unconverted tries either side of half time.

Okehampton regrouped and re-established their advantage when Jake Johns finished off a line out drive by peeling off to score.

Shortly after some excellent continuity play with the half backs combining well saw the ball fed to Nash to seal the bonus point score for the Okes.

Fly half Billy Searle showed great running line skills through the gap to feed the ball to captain Stephen Paul to run in from the 22 line for the final score in an excellent away win.