Exmouth 52 - 8 Tiverton

Exmouth were determined to put in a better performance against the visitors after a lack lustre display at Tiverton saw them lose. The first ten minutes were fairly even but then Exmouth settled into the game and used the strength and skill of the forwards to dominate the game freeing up the backs to show their pace.

The first try came from the familiar provider, Paul Bright, who was able to shrug off a couple of half hearted tackles and sprint past the visitors’ defence and touch down to give Tom Steer a reasonable chance to convert. Tom duly delivered with a perfect kick, the first of 6 for the day.

Paul was over again a few minutes later with an almost copycat version of his first, again set up by the power of the pack – in the first half Exmouth won every scrum whether they had put in or not. Paul’s brace was followed by an opportunist try by the ever eager and quick thinking Ed Wright, playing at scrum half for the first time in a while he kicked a lose ball to within feet of the line and was first there to pick it up and dive over. Tom was to miss this and the previous conversions but nailed all of the others, some from near the touch line.

The real story though was the way that the forwards were totally dominant at the scrum, the lineout and lose play with their rucking the best for the season. They were quick to any lose ball and set up several moves by charging over the ball at will. Jono Kamester was in tremendous form at flanker and was seen in the thick of it several times and was unlucky to be deemed held up when he went over for what would have been Exmouth’s 4th try.

Exmouth were having to work for the ball as Tiverton, despite the score, were always trying hard but never seemed to have the breaks! The home side went into half time with a 17-0 lead and after the break should have expected to carry on where they left off but Tiverton, to their credit, fought back and began to win their own scrum and for ten minutes there was no score but then the inevitable happened and Paul went over for his third. This was followed up by a try from Ben Holloway, prop, who supported his fellow prop Richard Keay and was rewarded with a pop pass to go over and score.

Exmouth scored another try from the kick off after Tiverton were awarded a penalty and their kicker decided they needed some points and kick a superb, and difficult, three points. Tom took a quick kick off and the bounce was in Exmouth’s favour as it popped up for Paul to make it his 4th. The remaining two tried came from Alfie Valentine who deserved the reward for his fine running and substitute Jay McAllister chased down another fine kick and was rewarded with a fortuitous bounce and outran the defenders to go over for his first ever try.

It was truly a team performance with the Forwards taking the credit for stifling anything that Tiverton tried and setting up the backs on several occasions. It was difficult to mention any one individual for praise as they all played their part however for his constant determination and snuffling lose ball and being the first to the breakdowns Jono Kamester took the plaudits although Tom Steer was close with kicking that most adult kickers would have been more than satisfied with.

Tiverton never gave up and with the last move of the game they put Exmouth under pressure and were rewarded with a well deserved try but sadly were unable to convert.