Okehampton U12s 55

South Molton U12s 0

A LOVELY morning saw South Molton kicking into the sun to open the match. Oke won the ball before there was an early injury for South Molton.

Oke opened the scoring following a scrum in the South Molton territory leading to a try for Shea; soon after a great driving maul gave Will his try.

South Molton held a good defence and it was not always easy for Oke to break through. Good teamwork, though rewarded Dan with his try. This was quickly followed by a try held up by South Molton. There were some cracking tackles from Alex today and great high ball catches from Toby before there was another try for Will. South Molton focused on some of the faster Oke players and quickly swarmed around them once they had the ball, not giving them chance to run. It meant most of the tries scored today were by the forwards.

The second half saw a good demonstration of passing from Oke across the pitch, culminating in a try for Alex. It looked as if Oke were going to score again, but a spilt ball was quickly picked up by South Molton and kicked down the pitch straight back to Oke. A scrum and a quick ball to Shea who nipped through for a try. This was soon followed by Ed barging through for his try. Soon after Adam ducked and weaved through for his try.

South Molton were beginning to drop, so it was an easy try for Will. Oke threw a wild ball which was taken by South Molton and driven by Adam into the deadball area. Craddy passed a long ball to Alex to score. Chris made a good drive and passed to Will to score. Saul closed the game with the final try.

The game was followed by a mixed team friendly match that was enjoyed by all.

Exeter Chiefs U11s 25

Tavistock U11s 45

TAVISTOCK U11s arrived to a cold, foggy Exeter, to face the Chiefs for the second time this month.

It was agreed to play three 20 minute sessions and Tavistock started well with the first five minutes camped on the Chiefs’ try line. It was William White went over for the first Tavistock.

Continued pressure saw Tavistock awarded a penalty try quickly after but the first real attack from the Chiefs led to them scoring in the corner.

The game became competitive with Laird Whitford putting in some great tackles and scrum half Alba Stewart helped the visitors defend by pushing a Chiefs’ player twice her size into touch. Joel Blake broke the deadlock by breaking through the Chiefs’ defence to score to give Tavistock a two try lead at the end of session one.

However, Exeter were right back on it in the next session to level the score with two quick tries. Good work defending from Brandon Gilder and Ben Madar helped Tavistock and Luke Burbage was speedy as ever around the pitch.

It was a great rip of the ball from William Garside that set up a Sam Perkins try and then Sam made a great pass onto William White who scored in the corner returning Tavistock to a two try lead.

The final session was the most competitive with Sam Boyle showing his speed in the rucks and Sam Palmer and Ted Wilkinson really competing for the loose ball. This urgency to secure the ball by Tavistock saw Archie Wall pop up to shrug off a number of tackles and score in the corner. Exeter came right back with a try but Tavistock returned with a hard fought try from Archie Davies. Chiefs again pulled one back to still be two tries behind but Tavistock pressed home their strength and depth of players with two late tries, a second from Archie Wall and a feisty third try for William White after Sam Perkins ran the length of the pitch.

It was great win for Tavistock whose player of the match was Laird Whitford.

Exeter Chiefs U10s 4 tries

Tavistock U10s 3 tries

THIS was a really tight, closely matched. game played in the fog in the lead up to Christmas.

Tavistock rucked really well and there was a great team effort with Ernie, Matthew, Alistair and William A working well to keep and win possession from the Chiefs.

William showed great power to burst through the opposition defence to score. Some ferocious tackling from Finlay, Gabriel and Michael kept the home side at bay for most of the game. George, too, threw himself into every tackle and was rewarded with a try. There were fearsome drives through the opposition by Dominic and  all the Tavistock players took some really hard hits.

The pace of Harry and Edward proved to be a bonus too and while Harry was unlucky, Edward also went on the scoresheet with a great pick up and run to the line. 

Okehampton U9s 6 tries

South Molton U9s 6 tries

OKEHAMPTON were slow to get going in the opening match. South Molton made the most of this with a quick break for the opening try.

Oke moved the ball well from the restart and Charlie skipped past a couple of players before a lovely offload in the tackle to Lewis, who produced a sublime side step past his opposite number and score in the corner.

The opposition made sensible use of their larger size to try and batter their way through the Oke line. However Oke’s tackling was on song with big hits coming in from Jacob, Wilf and Lewis ensuring that most attacks were repulsed.

South Molton eventually pushed over the line for two tries before Oke hit back with sharply taken try from Stanley and another from Dylan, who was unstoppable from the half way line as he barged his way through their defence. A fourth was added by Charlie who showed great support work to collect a quick pop pass from Todd to burrow his way over the line through a pile of bodies.

The relentless tackling was beginning to suck the Oke players in and open up space for the opposition who took full advantage to score two tries. A great cover tackle from Wilf prevented a third and resultant turnover ball was seized upon by Thomas to jink his way through the entire team to score an excellent try which he promptly followed up with a carbon copy second try to finish the game in a entertaining draw.

Okehampton U9s 6 tries

South Molton U9s 7 tries

SOUTH Molton almost scored directly from the kick off only for the ball to be spilled as Jacob brought the player down just short of the line. Todd whipped the resultant loose ball out to Wilf on the wing who out sprinted the South Molton team to score at the far end.

South Molton increasingly took the route one option and ploughed down the middle towards the Oke line. The entire Oke team hurled themselves repeatedly into tackles to keep the opposition moving sideways rather than forward. ventually sheer weight of bodies carried South Molton over. Some careless handling from the restart saw Oke lose the ball and end up back on their own line defending again until Jacob snaffled a loose ball and released Rocco to relieve the pressure by scoring at the other end.

From the restart Oke again prised the ball from South Molton and Mikey fed a pass to Wilf who crashed over for his second try. South Molton hit straight back with a score before Todd showed great awareness to pick out Lewis with a long pass to the wing which gave him time to beat his player and score in the corner.

Oke levelled the scores as the ball worked its way out to Wilf on the wing who took his defender on the outside and beat him for pace to score his third. The last few minutes saw Oke pressing for the winning score before South Molton forced the ball lose in the tackle and scoop it up to run in the final try of the match.