Exmouth 29 - 10 Barnstaple

The visit of Barnstaple to the Imperial Ground is always a bit special and on Saturday it brought together the only Devon sides currently playing in the South West One League and both were in need of points. With a host of Barum supporters arriving by train and with Exeter Chiefs playing away the best crowd of the season witnessed what was an exciting, and in some respects, unusual game of rugby. Hopefully the crowd went away after the game remembering the rugby played by both sides, and the cracking tries scored by the Cockles, rather than the period in the latter stages when the referees use of the yellow card bordered on bizarre.

 
Barnstaple kicked off and although Exmouth stole an early Barum lineout there was little good fare for the Cockles for the rest of the first quarter. Within two minutes, Neil Giddy put the visitors ahead with a penalty and this heralded an onslaught by Barnstaple. They hardly left the Exmouth half and for twenty minutes the Cockles defence bordered on heroic. Giddy missed a penalty and a number of opportunities were lost when a direct route to the line could have produced a couple of scores.

It all changed on twenty minutes when Garry Hooper stood up to a rampaging Barum No 8 Jack Elliot in mid field, pinched the ball and offloaded to Chris Strong. He took it forward and passed to Jack Downie who with a mix of running and kicking skills scored a cracking try. Ben Hough converted and the sense of disbelief by the Barum faithful was understandable. An injury to Ben Boswell brought the talented Richard Sharp on to the field and within minutes his fellow flanker Andrew Smith was combining with Adam Wyllie to put more pressure on the visitors. A forward pass brought them back but the mood had changed and the Cockles were now in full flow.

Ben Hough kicked a penalty a few minutes later and for the next twenty minutes to the break Exmouth had to withstand the full weight of the Barnstaple attack. Defending a series of scrums on their own line typified the Cockles gutsy performance and when a knock on by Barnstaple relieved the pressure it did seem that it was not to be the visitors’ day.

 
Exmouth kicked off the second half and with two minutes played forced a lineout on the Barum 10 metre line. The ball passed quickly to Ben Hough who found Mark Wathes screaming through a gap in the visitors defence and the centre scored under the posts. Hough finished off with the conversion and with the score at 17pts-3 Exmouth rested control of the game. With fifteen minutes of the half played the Cockles worked their way up field and a scrum on the Barum 5 metre line provided the platform for their next score. Garry Hooper spotted a gap and full back Adam Garner was in support to score. Ben Hough converted and when Matt Ryan scored following good work by Jack Downie the 29pts-3 score line had put the cockles out of sight.

With Barnstaple needing four scores to overhaul the Cockles the result seemed in no doubt, but when the yellow card appeared in quick succession anything seemed possible during the remaining fifteen minutes.  Barnstaple scored a converted try following an uncontested scrum but they were unable to make any further progress against the depleted Exmouth ranks.