Weston-super-Mare 28 - 16 Exmouth

The Cockles’ poor results on the road continued last weekend when they travelled to Weston Super Mare. On the face of it there was not a lot to choose between the teams but shipping a try in the first two minutes got them off to a bad start.

 
Weston kicked off and quickly regained possession and worked the ball to the Exmouth line. When the ball came loose Jack Downie had no option but to ground the ball behind his own line. From the 5 metre scrum Weston No 8 Dan Fry bulldozed over and stand off James McKay converted and the Cockles were seven points down. The home side continued to look slick and attacked the Exmouth line, a drop goal attempt went wide, they nicked an Exmouth lineout and although a Jack Downie run supported by Chris Strong looked promising it came to nothing when a pass was intercepted by a Weston player.

With seventeen minutes played McKay missed a kickable penalty from just outside the Exmouth 22 but the Exmouth restart kick from the 22 was caught by Dan Fry on half way, and helped by some poor tackling by Exmouth the No 8 charged down the pitch to score his second try. This prompted a response from the Cockles and they started to put together some good phases.  With twenty five minutes on the clock a break by Garry Hooper from halfway was carried on by Mark Wathes and Tom Elliott and Matt Ryan finished off wide out. The respective stand offs, James McKay and Ben Hough traded penalties around the half hour and at the break with the score at 15pts -8 Weston’s slender lead kept Exmouth well in touch with the game.

 
Exmouth kicked off the second half and continued to have some good phases of play but they were unable to break down the Weston defence. Kent Referee Matt Carley penalised the Cockles more than a few times around the rucks and contact areas and with seventeen minutes of the half played McKay had added another two penalties. With the score at 21pts-8 in Weston’s favour the game was slipping away but when Ben Hough slotted a penalty on twenty minutes the score of 21pts-11 still gave the Cockles some hope that they could get something out of the game.

Exmouth continued to press for a score but any thoughts of turning things around disappeared when James McKay scored and converted his own try to post a score of 28pts-11 with twelve minutes of the game remaining. With minutes left to play the Cockles showed what they can do when a break by Ben Hough was carried on by Matt Ryan and Jack Downie scored wide out.

 
With Exeter Chiefs away this Saturday a large crowd could be expected at the Imperial Ground when Exmouth continue their League season with the visit of Barnstaple.