Western Counties West

Okehampton 51

St Ives 5

AFTER three games in seven days, and still carrying injuries aplenty, it was no surprise that the Okes looked a little tired as they comfortably dispatched their Easter visitors.

This game was rearranged after an earlier weather affected cancellation, and it was to St Ives' credit that they gamely turned up despite having only a bare 15, while also already being virtually assured of relegation.

The home support were grateful to have some form of rugby to watch over the Easter period, but the first half was at times a little uneventful. The Okes started strongly playing up the slope with the breeze at their backs, and should have opened the scoring within a minute. Scrum half Joey Bruce had the ball knocked from his grasp as he looked certain to score from close range as the Okes drove forward at pace. This seemed to encourage slight complacency within the home ranks and as the sun continued to shine, St Ives slowly grew into the half and were soon to take a shock lead. A visiting forward broke off a ruck to the right of the posts and crossed after some flimsy defence to snatch a surprise 5-0 lead against the run of play.

The home side regrouped, and were on top for the remainder of the first half without ever threatening to really cut loose. Errors were abundant, however, and the only other try of the half went to number nine Joey Bruce who grounded at the rear of a powerful driving maul for a try converted by centre Tom Powell. The skipper then added another penalty right on the break to make the score a slightly underwhelming 10-5 to the Okes as the sides turned around.

The second 40 minutes was much improved from Okehampton and as the visitors tired, Oke racked up the points in a much more one sided half. Almost immediately the Okes scored their second try as ever improving prop Pat Nash crashed over, taking a sharp line onto a pop pass. Next to cross minutes later was replacement winger Lewis Taylor, who benefited from a quick line out on halfway and stepped inside the cover to score by the posts.

Okehampton were now completely on top and the gaps were beginning to appear all over the brave St Ives defensive line, as the lack of replacements and firm footing began to take its toll.

Fly half Gareth Espin for Okehampton soon added another try from an interception on half way to gain the bonus point, and a fourth score of the half was not far behind. This time it was evergreen lock Richard Drake who scored what was his maiden five pointer for the first fifteen after many years of sterling service.

The game entered the last quarter, but there was no respite for the Cornishmen as three more tries were conceded in the time remaining. Firstly it was winger Rory Honeychurch on the end of a crisp backs' handling move via swift ball off the top of a lineout. Then fittingly it was non-stop flanker Dean Abrams' turn to cross the whitewash, not once but twice. The second occurred after a nice bout of handling, which released the back rower to cross in the bottom right corner to finish the match with a flourish.

Three of the seven second half tries were covered by centre Tom Powell to take the hosts over the 50 point barrier and confirm the visitors' drop into the Devon and Cornwall league next season.