Winscombe 17 - Crediton 18 SATURDAY, October 18, brought Crediton RFC First Team a challenge that we weren’t familiar with for over five years, in fact we have only played against Winscombe twice before, winning both games in the 2018-19 season.

Coming into it off a two game losing streak in the league, three games if you include the cup, again something that we have not experienced for some time.

Thankfully due to the terrible weather on Tuesday night we made the decision to cancel training, which looking back was probably a good decision because the lads needed a break from the norm.

Playing away from home was a blessing in disguise because as it took some of the pressure away.

The home side had enjoyed a decent start to the season with a notable win against Tiverton and so we knew that this was not going to be an easy game.

From the kick off, we took the game to Winscombe, dominating territory and possession with Ed Brady and Ollie Avery-Wright controlling that territory battle extremely well and we caught Winscombe by surprise with our physicality.

There were no holes in our defence and the tackles going in were all dominant ones.

We were a handful at the breakdown and looked in complete control. The boys laid it all on the line for the badge.

The opening quarter remained scoreless but after a good passage of play, we found ourselves on Winscombe’s five metre line with a scrum.

We were awarded three penalties in a row after repeated pressure which resulted in a yellow card to the Winscombe loose head.

The very next scrum we pushed them over the line for the first score, touched down by Luke Mingo. The conversion missed its mark. 

Winscombe finally got themselves into the game and forced a penalty in our “22’ which they kicked to reduce the deficit to two points. Fortunately, that didn’t halt our momentum. We found ourselves once again in the opposition ‘22” after continued pressure with ball in hand.

After being camped on their line for a few phases, we put a bit of width on our play where aided by a clever “between the legs” pass from No8 Ben Wonnacott enabled scrum half Ed Brady was able to run clear for our second score.  OAW converted for a 12-3 lead at the interval.

The second half started the same as the first. Crediton came out of the blocks quickly and after continued pressure we won a penalty on Winscombe’s 10 metre line, OAW stepped up and slotted the three points for 15-3.

It was a question of déjà vu as from the restart, we cleared our lines and after a solid kick chase managed to win the ball back.

Being patient with the ball for a number of phases we were then awarded another penalty in the home “22”. OAW stepped up and slotted the points taking it to 18-3.

Winscombe then decided they needed to join the party and despite our defence being outstanding for 60 minutes, their scrum half found a gap on the edge of a ruck and ran clear to score almost unopposed, the conversion made it 18-10.

A very sloppy score to concede considering how well we defended until that point.

Inspired by that score, Winscombe kept the momentum going and managed to make a break on halfway through a missed tackle in the midfield, they were able to execute the two on one and go through for their second score.  Conversion successful taking it to 18-17. 

The remaining 10 minutes was a bit of a nailbiter. But we were desperate to get back to winning ways and the defence held strong. 

Josh Goldman won a turnover and we were awarded a penalty on last play.

We kicked the ball out of play and that brought an end to proceedings.

An extremely tough game as we were expecting away from home but we’ll take the four points and get our season back on track.

Rob Avery-Wright