With Crediton giving away a significant weight advantage, this was soon made apparent with Plymstock battering Crediton’s defence. This held strong until Rachel Mortimer managed to intercept the ball and rush from her “22” to score under the post, where she gracefully added the extra two.
Plymstock returned the kick and Crediton started to apply pressure.
After a long-sustained period probing the home team’s line, Lorraine Cleverdon-Brend barged her way over to score. Unfortunately, Rachel Mortimer pushed the conversion wide of the mark.
Crediton were starting to look very comfortable on the ball and with the scrum holding steady, started to explore weaknesses in the Plymstock back line. This was capitalised on by Chloe Hetherington, who broke through the line of defence, quickly supported by Danni Phillips, and with Chloe holding her nerve, put it away for a try. Again, the conversion was unsuccessful, leaving the score at 0-22 at the break.
After the interval Crediton, playing up the slope, looked full of confidence. But it was Plymstock that started an onslaught that put the away side under enormous amounts of pressure. Creating a disturbance in Crediton’s discipline helped the home side to level up the score to 22-22.
With the minutes ticking away, the atmosphere became tense, but Crediton dug their heels in and managed to set up camp on Plymstock’s try line before Emma Davie shot over to score.
With two-and-a-half minutes on the clock Rachel Mortimer took her full allotted time to successfully convert her kick. Knowing that there was only a minute left, Plymstock pressurised Crediton into a mistake. They made the most of this, rampaging down, before a penalty was given against the away side and with a quick tap Plymstock went under the post and converted the extra two before the final whistle making the final score Plymstock 29 - Crediton 29.
Forward of the match went to Sarah Kingdon and Back of the match went to Issy Edworthy. Thank to Plymstock for hosting Crediton.
Crediton Ladies team have certainly excelled themselves this season and have secured second place in the National Challenge One South West (West) with one game left to play.
The final game will be on Saturday, April 22 against Penryn, which should be worth a watch. So please go down to Blagdon and support the ladies as I think you will agree, they deserve it.
Kev Ellis