Exmouth 26 - 11 St Mary's Old Boys

Over the past couple of seasons Exmouth have come to respect the Old Boys, one of two Bristol sides in this league, but on this grey day at the Imperial Ground, St Mary’s came off second best. They played their part to the full and if they had converted a number of penalty opportunities in the second half, it might have enlivened what was a pretty dour forty minutes. From the touchline this was not a classic, with the game littered with mistakes, turnovers and penalties but when it mattered the Cockles, who were not at their best, knew where the try line was.

From kick off the initiative went straight to the Old Boys when the Exmouth kick went out on the full. From that point St Mary’s held on to the ball and when, with fourteen minutes played, they were awarded a kickable penalty on the Exmouth 22, it looked as if they would get their reward for a good spell of play. Steve Plummer’s high kick sailed outside the posts as did a number of attempts throughout the game. Richard Cadywould put in a booming kick from the restart and almost immediately the Cockles were awarded a penalty. The sure footed Cadywould made the 30 metre kick look so easy and Exmouth, against the run of play, were three points ahead.

Exmouth knocked on the restart and following the scrum were penalised. The Old Boys opted to kick to the Exmouth 22 and from the lineout the ball brought the visitors backs into play but when their centre was tackled he failed to release the ball. This got the Cockles back into the St Mary’s half and when they won a scrum 30 metres out from the Old Boys line they sensed a score was on. Quick ball from Gary Hooper found Matt Hopper who broke the St Mary’s defence and Jack Downie finished things off. The conversion went astray but when Exmouth were awarded another penalty three minutes later Richard Cadywould made no mistake and the Cockles score moved to 11pts –nil.

It took only three minutes for the referee, Julian Roderick of the Staffordshire Society, to blow his whistle again and, with thirty minutes played, Steve Plummer posted St Mary’s first points when his kick went over, clipping a post on the way. With forty minutes on the clock Richard Cadywould converted another penalty with a booming 30 metre kick.

Immediately after the restart Exmouth’s 14pts-3 half time lead looked shaky when some sloppy kicking out of the hands gave the ball to the Old Boys and Matt O’Keefe scored with only one minute played. The conversion was missed but at 14pts-8 St Mary’s were right back in the game. The next fifteen minutes was a period of interrupted play, with turnovers and mistakes aplenty, but just after sixty minutes things settled down a bit when Jack Downie broke out from defence, the ball passed through a number of hands and Dale Sleeman scored wide out.

With the score at 19pts-8 the Cockles should have pressed on but they went through a poor spell giving St Mary’s a number of penalty opportunities which they failed to convert. With ten minutes left Plummer made no mistake when another penalty was awarded and with the score at 19pts-11 they must have rued those missed kicks. Still needing two scores any hope they might have had was extinguished when Joe Croft started a move which ended with Richard Cadywould scoring a try which he converted himself.

The Cockles remain second in the League and travel to third placed Torquay on Saturday needing a victory to maintain their challenge of leaders Barnstaple who entertain St Mary’s Old Boys.