Western Counties West

St Austell 10

Okehampton firsts 22

OKEHAMPTON remain in the fight for a promotion place after a hard-fought victory over St Austell.

The Okes began strong with a strong north-westerly breeze at their backs. St Austell have a good record at home, in stark contrast to their stuttering away form. They began the match strongly and camped themselves in the Oke half for the first quarter of this match.

At one stage they completed no fewer than 16 phases but did not cross the gain line due to resolute tackling by the entire Oke squad. Play was nevertheless scrappy but on ten minutes the Saints were awarded a penalty for pulling down a maul. The penalty sailed wide.

Oke began to find their feet but three quick penalties — one for hands-in the ruck; another for coming into a ruck from the side and one blatant offside — failed to put any points on the board.

After 25 minutes and with the game becoming scrappy, stand-in fly half Gareth Espin intercepted the ball in midfield and with a burst of speed, outran the defence to score under the posts. Skipper Tom Powell added the extras.

With the game degenerating into a midfield slog, on 30 minutes Espin emerged with the ball and after a good run up the left flank he cut back against the defensive line for a 40 metre run to the whitewash, scoring one of the best tries seen by the travelling Oke support in a long time.

Player coach Gareth Evans replaced Nicky Martin on 30 minutes as the Saints mounted a series of attacks. They camped inside the Oke 22 for several minutes, putting phase after phase together but never getting over the gain line. To their credit Oke managed to turn the ball over through flanker Dean Abrams who sent his fellow flanker Liam Sampson away on a powerful run into the Saints half, where he set up centre Luke Honeychurch for the run in try that took the score out to 0-17.

The Saints came storming back at the beginning of the second half and with a fly half who knew how to use the fresh, cold wind at their backs the Saints began to threaten the Oke line. The pressure eventually told when Oke ran out of numbers in defence and St Austell’s impressive number eight went over half way out. However, the the extras were missed.

The now closely marked fly half Espin was injured in a tackle and had to be replaced at fly half by skipper Powell while Mattie Dennis took up the full back slot.

The tactical kicking by the Saints’ fly half set up the next try. A kick deep into the Oke 22 was not cleared to touch and their speedy winger sidestepped the defence and had a clear run to the corner.

At 10-17 the nerves were beginning to jangle for Okehampton. On 70 minutes Langy, having put in another sterling shift, was replaced by Nicky Martin. With time running out and a hailstorm pouring down, Oke’s persistence paid off with a try by Lee as both of them followed up a somewhat speculative kick to the corner.

Maximum points keep Okehampton in touch with the league leaders with just ten games left.