OKEHAMPTON took part in the Devon U13s rugby festival held at Tavistock.

In the three pool matches played in the morning, Okehampton lost 0-25 to Barnstaple, Okehampton 0-40 Kingsbridge and Okehampton 10-10 Exeter respectively.

Okehampton played three matches in the afternoon, against Totnes (30-0); Plymstock (5-0) and Honiton 10-5) In the Exeter game, Exeter’s penalty pass did not come to much, as Alex made a quick tackle and Sam piled on the pressure. Luca made his tackle, forcing Exeter to give up the ball to Rene and passing to Tom to score Oke’s first try.

Oke remained on the attack, with a brutal tackle from Rene and some great passing between Rene, Jacob and Tom. Oke lost the ball in the ruck but a lightning Sam whipped it up and passed to Alex, as Exeter dropped it; Alex took it to a maul with Harry and Isaac, enabling Jacob to nip away with the ball to make good progress. Exeter won the ball from a subsequent scrum but as they cleared it fell into the hands of Tom near the Oke 22 who sprinted in a gap to ground the ball a second time.

Against Plymstock their aggression was all there and they fiercely maintained 0-0 until the second half. They were not going to let their opponents chalk up another before the end.

Against Honiton, from the start Oke’s Luca pushed their player into touch at their 22. From the throw-in, Rene ran the ball to 10m, beautifully offloaded to Luca, then Marcus made a short run. As soon as Nathan had his hands on the ball, he was driving hard all the way to the try line and grounded the ball in an exciting first minute of play.

The pace was electric to the end and Harry almost scored a second for the Okes early on but was held up. Oke dominated the possession and there were some great mauls from Isaac, Sam, Alex and Tyler, with Nathan and Rene constantly on the attack. Again, Okehampton demonstrated what they can really do when they want it badly enough.

THE Devon U12s Rugby Festival was hosted at North Tawton RFC with 17 teams from an expected 20 travelling from afar for a wonderful day of rugby. Weather conditions were kind although the ground a little hard, but this did not seem to worry the players. Pools were drawn and the games commenced in a non-competitive format.

Okehampton U12s 30

Tiverton U12s 0

SPECIAL mention goes to Jacob, Harrison and Ryan who played for Tiverton throughout the festival. Tiverton were an unknown entity but Okehampton were the dominant side with tries from Craddy (2), Lachs and Adam (3).

Okehampton U12s 35

Tavistock U12s 0

THERE was a quick first try from Okehampton by Josh. Shortie. Shea, Ben, Alex and Ed made tackling look easy for Oke. Tries scored by Dan (2), Callum (1), Alex (1) and Lachs (2).

Okehampton U12s 5

Ivybridge U12s 5

THIS was a good, competitive game, Will opened the Oke scoring and a second held up try soon followed.

Okehampton U12s 5

Bideford U12s 0

FOLLOWING the pool games Oke played Bideford, a challenging game from the start but the boys kept their heads and played their game of quality and skill. Lachs scored the try in this game.

This was a splendid day with all the boys all putting huge amounts of effort into their game. Credit also goes to Craddy, Toby, Archie, Saul, Shortie and Tom, who all played their part in some tough games.

Not only is credit due for the players, mention must also be made for those in the background in the kitchen, those selling raffle tickets, making cakes, organising the whole festival, all contributing to the success of the day.