Exmouth 16 - 9 Newton Abbot

When the Cockles kicked off the current season back in September with a visit to Newton Abbot their 25pts – nil victory was achieved by open running rugby in glorious sunshine. Roll the clock forward six months to the Imperial Ground on Saturday and what a difference! Not unlike the previous week the conditions were not good for rugby with frequent showers coupled with a howling wind coming in from the sea and it had its impact on the course of the game. Exmouth kicked off into the wind and a series of misdemeanours gifted the visitors three penalties and by the start of the second quarter Newton Abbot, who have only lost once in their last five games, were 9 pts up.

 
The Cockles had some chances and despite going behind they always looked as if they could turn the tables when the elements were in their favour. The third penalty on twenty six minutes had a positive effect as Exmouth started to play the conditions with the forwards picking and driving creating good scoring positions. With ten minutes of the half remaining a high tackle gave the Cockles a penalty on the All Whites 22 and Richard Cadywould punted the ball to the corner to set up a regulation catch and drive. This didn’t work but when Newton Abbot knocked the ball on, a scrum, five metres out, gave Exmouth the platform and there was no stopping Graham Smith when he picked up and barged over. The wind held the conversion kick up but with the score at 9pts -5 the Cockles were clawing their way back.

The Exmouth forwards were now dictating things and a series of driving mauls took them back into the Newton half and with only minutes on the clock a knock on halted their assault. The Newton Abbot scrum was solid but slow ball to their No 10 gave the Exmouth back row all the time they needed to pounce and force a scrum in their favour five metres out. The Exmouth scrum was spot on and they drove over the line with Ben Boswell touching down. The wind again held up the conversion kick, followed immediately by the half time whistle and although Exmouth were only shading it by a point they had taken the initiative well and truly away from the visitors by their performance over the preceding ten minutes.

 
The visitors kicked off the second half and now had to face the elements against an Exmouth side with their tails up. The Cockles carried on from where they had left off and a series of drives took them to within thirty metres of the visitors’ line where a Newton Abbot player went offside. Richard Cadywould used the wind to his advantage and he curled the ball between the posts to take the score to 13pts-9. With eighteen minutes of the half played the Cockles went further ahead with another Cadywould penalty and this is how it stayed until the final whistle. With the wind at their backs Exmouth spent virtually the whole of the second half in the visitors half and on another day a cricket score would have been the result.

Exmouth rested the game in that ten minutes before half time but it is to the credit of both sides that they did not stop playing until the final whistle in ground conditions that were both strength sapping and difficult. The game was refereed by Mr Neal Woodhead of the Devon RRS who had a fine game on a day when playing rugby was a bit of a challenge.