Western Counties West

Kingsbridge 27

Okehampton 10

IF last week was a high point for the Okes in this campaign, the last 55 minutes of this encounter saw an unfortunate return to their disappointing form of the first two matches.

Okehampton travelled shorn of Billy Searle and Luke Honeychurch from last week's line-up. Their cause was further hampered by the loss of prop Nicky Martin to injury in the pre match warm up. Hooker Bruce Griffiths was therefore promoted from the bench, hours after landing back in the country from Australia. Despite all this, Oke will still be upset with how they failed to push on after a decent start on a damp day at High House.

Playing up the slight slope on a narrow pitch, the Okes dominated the opening exchanges, and after going through several phases scrum half Joey Bruce, again a standout performer, snuck over up the short side after only two minutes. Fly half Carl Poynton slotted an excellent touchline conversion.

It was fairly even in the opening quarter, and it was little surprise when Kingsbridge responded after 12 minutes. A poor scrummage from the Okes, was wheeled and the hosts number eight made good ground as a result. Poor tackles then allowed the ball to be recycled and moved right for winger James Trout to slide over in the bottom corner to make it 7-5.

The Okes were really struggling at lineout time. After 20 minutes Poynton missed one difficult penalty chance, but shortly afterwards potted an almost identical effort to stretch Oke's lead to five points.

Then the visitors returned to their bad old ways as they self-destructed to hand the initiative to the home side. Right from the restart Oke failed to clear the ball in their own 22. They attempted to run out, but failed to move the ball quickly enough and were penalised for holding on at the breakdown. Home full back Bamfield accepted the gift of three points.

Kingsbridge were now on the front foot, and never relinquished their advantage as the Okes failed to ground their bigger runners either in wide channels or around the fringes. A penalty resulted in the hosts taking the scrummage option just before the break. After initially repelling the drive, from the resultant ruck, home lock Woodland had an easy pick up and drive try which went unconverted to put Kingsbridge 15-10 up at the break. Oke flanker Dean Abrams saw yellow for offences during the try build up to leave Oke down to 14 after the interval.

The Okes were still well in the match though and after home forward Darke also saw yellow, they should have applied some pressure. However, the recurring traits of poor lineout, sloppy tackling and lack of attacking creativity resulted in the match completely slipping away. After Poynton missed a difficult penalty chance, Kingsbridge stand-off Newman strolled through some non-existent midfield defence for a soft try under the uprights.

Now ten points down, Oke's lack of bulk and dynamism up front was resulting in ball constantly being held up or turned over. Poynton missed another long range penalty chance before Kings got their fourth, and bonus point try.

The Okes' failure to adequately defend the fringes saw number eight Jack Cope cross for another five pointer and put the result to bed. Kingsbridge dominated the remaining quarter and the game went as flat as Okes second half performance as the visitors were a comprehensive second best in a 27-10 defeat.