DEVONPORT 26 - CREDITON 10

DISAPPOINTMENT continued in the league last Saturday (February 13) with this defeat at Devonport, a side that were no great shakes themselves but seemed to have more desire than we did.

I am sure the reality is that this was not the case but to the travelling support, that is how it appeared. Very little went right and heads seemed to drop quite early in the game and yet we reached the interval still very much in the game at 3-12.

The hosts looked, early on, as though they would be out of sight well before the break having scored a couple of early, if somewhat, soft tries.

Some poor defending aided by some kicks to relieve the pressure which only served to have the opposite effect, as their most dangerous back seemed to gather each one at pace to set another attack going.

Defensively, things did begin to tighten up and we managed to gain ground ourselves on occasions but the odd delayed pass and a couple of penalties conceded when in good positions prevented us from scoring and we really should have had more that an Ollie Avery-Wright penalty to show for our efforts in the first 40 minutes.

Devonport controlled the game through their half-backs, neither of them spring chickens but certainly knew when to attack and from where or when to kick keeping us on the back foot for most of the time.

Nonetheless, we were still in the game until early in the second half when the home side bagged a couple more tries in a short space of time to put the game well out of reach.

It took us a long time to get into a position to play rugby in their “22” and when we did, we scored, a good catch and drive off a lineout and lock Cam Huxtable was driven over, Avery-Wright landed an excellent conversion to give the score a semblance of respectability but in the end it was too little too late.

Despite other results not going too badly for us, we have been dragged further into the relegation battle although fortunately, we are not in the position of having to rely on other results, we are certainly capable of extricating ourselves from this position, a bit of self-belief and confidence in our own ability and there is no reason why we cannot pick up points off the clubs around us.

At this stage it looks like any two from five clubs, Sidmouth, St Austell, Saltash, Penryn and ourselves are the most likely candidates for the drop.

We have St Austell and Penryn at home and Saltash and Sidmouth away all very winnable games.

In addition we have a game in-hand over St Austell and Saltash so we are better placed than most of the sides around us.

DEVONPORT COLTS 11 - CREDITON COLTS 13

The Colts left it very late to secure the victory over Devonport. A Tom Luxmore try in the dying moments, converted by Josh Davey, saw them overhaul the home side.

It was difficult for the Crediton side playing on the all-weather pitch, an experience that does not come their way that often whereas the home side do have the opportunity to train and play on it on a more regular basis. Davey also banged over a couple of penalties.

PH