Walcot 22 - 28 Exmouth
Although the score suggests a tight game Exmouth were firing on all cylinders and virtually untouchable for the first thirty minutes but took their foot of the pedal and allowed Bath side Walcot back into the game for a long period either side of half time. Although the Cockles never looked like losing the game, leading 25pts- 5 at the break, they really ought to have closed things down and restricted Walcot’s revival.
Right from the kick off Exmouth made a positive start with centre Joe Croft making an early break and when Walcot went offside Richard Cadywould pumped the ball into their 22. He received the ball back from the lineout did a quick shimmy and dummy and with five minutes on the clock went over to post a five point lead. Walcot restarted and although Exmouth knocked on they regained the ball in loose play, centre Matt Hopper received the ball, streaked through the Walcot defence, carried for forty metres offloaded to Mark Wathes and the skipper scored. Richard Cadywould kicked the conversion to make it twelve points on the board after six minutes.
Walcot came back into the game and should have taken three points when Exmouth strayed offside but the kick went badly astray, as did a number of their kicks throughout the game. On seventeen minutes Richard Cadywould showed them how it should be done when he added another three points to take the score to 15pts –nil and seven minutes later he was on target again to slot another penalty and post a score of 18pts-nil. Just past the half hour it all looked so easy when Jack Downie charged forward off-loaded to Matt Hopper and the centre cut through the Walcot defence to score with Richard Cadywould adding the points once again.
At 25pts –nil it would be easy to suggest that the Cockles thought it was job done. Seb Phelps was putting in some hard hits and Ed Baxter was getting his hands on the ball but the Walcot pack had been edging the contest most of the time and with minutes to go to the break centre Tom Darrington profited from their graft and scored an unconverted try. Walcot kicked off the second half and carried on where they had left off. With eight minutes played a series of penalties took them to the Cockles five metre line and a catch and drive provided hooker Terry Hughes with a try.
When Tom Darrington scored his second try five minutes later and Dave Wilby kicked the points the Exmouth lead of eight points, with over twenty five minutes remaining, was beginning to look a bit shaky. Richard Cadywould settled things down a bit when he slotted over a drop kick and the points cushion looked enough when a Walcot player was yellow carded five minutes later. To even things up an Exmouth player was sin binned shortly after and with four minutes of injury time played it looked all over when Walcot knocked on within yards of the line. The Ref was still playing injury time and to add to the drama Exmouth messed up the scrum and given the put in Walcot pushed the Exmouth eight over the line for No 8 Danny Williams to score. The final whistle came and the Cockles had avenged their defeat of 2005 in the same competition.