Okehampton opened the new season with a hard-fought cup match against Kingsbridge.

Oke made the stronger start as Louis followed up a break down the wing by collecting his own clever kick over the top into the Kingsbridge 22 and finding Amos running a great support line.

Kingsbridge finally tackled him 10 yards out but knocked the ball on in the ensuing ruck giving Oke a scrum between the posts. Wilf picked up from the base of the scrum and wheeled round the blindside to crash over for the first score.

Stout defending, notably some bone-crunching tackles from Dylan Sullivan, repulsed wave after wave of Kingsbridge attacks before they finally slipped through a gap to score.

Kingsbridge won a penalty from the restart and would have scored from a quick tap-and-go if it hadn’t been for Dylan Shayler showing great awareness and strength to hold up the ball over the line.

Oke’s forwards wisely decided that route one was the preferred option and moved play up field with some big runs from Ethan and Zac. A well worked lineout move saw Oke rumble close to the line with a rolling maul before swiftly moving the ball through the backs for Amos to dive over in the corner with Euan slotting the conversion.

An almost identical move brought a second try for Amos after Joseph was held up just short of the line having latched onto a sharp pass from Jacob.

Kingsbridge made good use of the width of the pitch to unlock the Oke defence and pick up a couple of converted tries.

The scoreboard was saved further damage thanks to some fine cover tackling at full back from Ciaran who also showed great counter attacking skills running from deep and carving up the Kingsbridge defence. A couple of misfiring lineouts handed possession back to Kingsbridge to score again but Oke kept fighting to the end.

With the clock ticking down, Oke pulled off one last move shifting the ball through all the backs to find Harry on the wing who dived under the defender to score in the corner. Euan added the extras with a fine kick out wide to cut the deficit to a single score, but time finally ran out for Oke to complete their comeback.