Exmouth 34 - 17 Coney Hill

Back in September newly promoted Exmouth opened their South West 1 campaign with a visit to this Gloucester side and returned with a bloody nose following a 50 odd points drubbing. Things have changed a bit since then and on Saturday ‘in form’ side Exmouth showed they have strength in depth and cruised to a comfortable 34pts-17 win over their previous tormentors.

 
Colt Shaun Fayter making his debut 1st XV start got the game under way with one of Devon’s top referees Simon Lane in charge. There was a keen wind blowing in from the river and this got the better of a Fayter penalty kick after just ten minutes but minutes later Rory Baker posted the first points for the visitors with a penalty kick in front of the posts. The Cockles pulled things back minutes later when Mark Wathes injected some pace from about half way and County squad member Ben Boswell finished things off and scored a try. Fayter converted and Exmouth had a 7pts-3 lead.

 
The game lost some of its momentum when play was held up due to an injury and on restarting the second quarter was bit of a stop go affair with no scores added up to the break.
Within minutes of the restart another injury held play up for a while and when play resumed it was Coney Hill who were looking the better side. Joe Heaver and the other back row players Chris Strong and Ben Boswell had to put in some heavy tackles but with twelve minutes played Coney Hill turned over an Exmouth scrum and their influential No 8 Mark Rimmer charged over from five metres out. Rory Baker converted and they took the lead for the second time.

This was short-lived as almost immediately the Adams, Wyllie and Hooper combined to produce a cheeky try following a line out on half way. Adam Hooper threw the ball to Adam Wyllie at the front of the line, the big second row forward drove forward passed back to Hooper and the hooker scampered down the touch line to score and edge Exmouth ahead 12pts-10.From this point Exmouth started to exert control and three tries over a six minute period put the game beyond the reach of the visitors. Fayter was finding good territory with some fine kicking out of his hands and once in the Coney Hill half Exmouth kept the pressure on. A break by Gary Hooper was held up when he was pushed into touch but from the Coney Hill lineout the ball found its way to Jack Downie who sliced through the visitors defence. Paul Morgan was in support and he powered through to score an unconverted try.

Five minutes later the Cockles were again back in the Coney 22 and from a scrum ten metres out a text book move saw Downie finish off close in. Richard Cadywould converted and Exmouth were looking good at 24pts-10. The pressure continued and minutes later Captain Gary Hooper took the game beyond the visitors with another try which Richard Cadywould again converted. The visitors had some consolation when the combination of Rimmer and Rory Baker added a converted try for the visitors. A lot of injury time had to be played but Exmouth had done enough and a Richard Cadywould penalty set the seal on a well deserved win.

 
With their League status secure for next season and having suffered the pain of being dumped out of the Devon Senior Cup the Cockles will travel to Barnstaple on Saturday for what is now their big game of the season. Barum will be contesting for the silverware against Cullompton at the end of the season but Exmouth will want to put the icing on their season and come away with something from Pottington Road.