Honiton 10 - 17 Exmouth

Earlier on in the season, Exmouth put a convincing score past Honiton Colts, but their second meeting of the season turned out to be an unimpressive story. The Cockle’s travelled away for what turned out to be a challenging fixture.  The away team made it a lot more difficult for themselves in an ugly win with several changes to the Exmouth team, especially in the back line. 

Fullback Sam Reid was first on the score sheet, after a break by step-in fly half Adam Morris through the Honiton backline. The try was unconverted to give Exmouth the lead at 5-0. It was not long after going ahead that Exmouth’s discipline started causing them problems with silly errors starting to creak into their game. After a penalty kick to touch, Honiton set up a lineout move and spread it wide to go over for a try. Mirroring Exmouth, the try went unconverted.

After a long period with both teams testing each other’s game plan and consistent pressure being piled on by the Honiton forwards, Exmouth finally battled through to get the next try. From the Honiton half, the backs opened up their pace and centre, Lloyd Murrin, went over under the sticks after fending off opposition tackles. Murrin converted his own try to bring the score to 12-5 at half time, in Exmouth’s favour.

The second half proved to be very much like the first with Honiton testing Exmouth’s defence throughout the game. Honiton camped in Exmouth’s half won a penalty and made the most of their territory. From a scrum close to the line, Honiton choose to run it out wide, putting the winger over for another try. Now, at 12-10 to Exmouth, the pressure was really on for the Cockles to up their game.

Exmouth were still making the game hard for themselves after more ill-discipline, and unforced errors in their own half. However the cockles dug deep and with a break away from wing, James Bartholomew Exmouth grabbed their last points of the game with a try to give them the final score of 17-10.

Although not one of the prettiest and exciting games to watch it was an important the Cockle’s won the game. They ground out a hard earned victory and had to play scrappy, ugly rugby against a much improved Honiton side. They still maintain a good record in the Devon Merit table and hope to learn from their mistakes they made this week to become stronger for the next game.