Exmouth 25 - 22 Oxford Harlequins

Following the disappointing performance at Chippenham the previous week the pressure was on the Cockles to produce the goods last Saturday with the visit of Oxford Harlequins. The Quins, who have been in this League longer than any of the current sides, have struggled a bit this season, but their one win was against Chippenham back in October. The Cockles plans were not helped with a number of key players unavailable and they took the field with five players in the pack who would normally play in the back row. In the event the eight made a major contribution and the pressure they put on the visitors provided a number of scoring opportunities. Richard Cadywould put this to good use and had a real corker of a game. He  scored all his sides points, slotting six penalties and converting his own try.

The Cockles will be disappointed that they shipped three tries and grateful that a last minute penalty kick by the Harlequins was off target. The visitors kicked off against a strong wind blowing from the river and were soon in trouble with referee Shane Lewis of the Somerset Society when he penalised them on halfway. Richard Cadywould’s kick looked effortless as it sailed over the crossbar and with three minutes played Exmouth were three points up. Two minutes later Harlequins were penalised again and when they failed to retreat when Garry Hooper took a quick penalty, Cadywould was presented with an easy shot at goal. Another two penalties followed in quick succession and with twelve minutes on the clock the Cockles had scored as many points. Right from the restart the Harlequins struck back when winger Ollie Campbell kicked ahead and fullback Nick Sevier followed up to score an unconverted try.

Exmouth responded immediately and within three minutes Chris Strong pounced on an Oxford mistake and supporting player Richard Cadywould was on hand to score and convert his own try. At 19pts-5 Exmouth looked to be in control but the visitors started to gain some momentum and their second try followed ten minutes later when centre Sean Lombard slipped thorough the Exmouth defence. Sevier made no mistake this time with his kick and were now only one score behind at 19pts-12.Almost immediately the Harlequins were down to fourteen players when No 8 Ben Nichol was sin binned and although Seb Phelps and Jack Downie tried to find holes the Oxford defence held up well during this period. Right on time Richard Cadywould kicked his fifth penalty and half time arrived with Exmouth leading 22pts-12.

 
The wind, still blowing towards the Clubhouse, now favoured the visitors and when Sevier kicked a penalty with only five minutes played the distant sound of alarm bells began to ring. The Harlequins were back in the game and should have closed the gap even further with a kickable penalty from the half way line but the kick fell just short. With Ben Boswell now sin binned Oxford struck again when scrum-half Anthony Cope broke from the base of the scrum on the Exmouth 22 and scored close in. Sevier converted and with the scores level at 22pts each, and with just over twenty minutes left to play, it really was anybody’s game.

The yellow card appeared again when the Oxford No 5 left the field and play went from one end to the other. With two minutes of normal time left Richard Cadywould’s sixth penalty eased Exmouth ahead but within a minute they offered Harlequins a get out of jail card with a penalty on the home 10 metre line. The kick was off target and Exmouth were able to play out a few minutes of injury time to secure two precious points. This win lifts Exmouth one place in the league with the same points as Old Patesians and Barnstaple just below the top half of the table.