Crediton 48 - Torrington 14

THERE was another brilliant game of grassroots rugby for Crediton RFC Thirds as we welcomed Torrington to Blagdon.

Having suffered a few injuries of late, Torrington managed to bring a bare 15 but they were not here just to make up the numbers as we had to work very hard to ease into a 10-7 interval lead.

We were then given something of a wakeup call early in the second half when Torrington went ahead to lead 14-10.

This was an unusual position for the Thirds to find themselves in this season, rarely have they been behind in games so this would be a test of character for them.

Torrington continued to press and some desperate defending kept them at bay.

With our winning streak under threat it was time for us to bring our attacking game back into the game.

The visitors began to tire after their concerted efforts to extend their lead and we took advantage to run in six second half tries.

Euan Philip put in another man of the match performance with a hat trick of tries.

The evergreen Bradley Baker was carving up the defence again and ran in a lovely solo try from his own half, his 10th try of the season.

Harry Hustwayte scored a well worked try and Paul Ratchford also touched down. Owen Cooper scored two tries and landed four conversions.

We thank Torrington for making the effort to travel with a bare 15 and we wish them well for the rest of the season.

The Thirds are currently 16 points clear at the top of the Merit Table although the two closest challengers have games in hand and we have to visit them both but the players can travel with confidence, the pressure is on the others to catch us.

The Thirds have no game this weekend.

Paul Harris