Newton Abbot 0 - 25 Exmouth

The Cockles travelled to Rackerhayes, home of the All Whites, on Saturday to kick off their South West 2 league season. Having suffered a forty odd points reverse in last seasons corresponding fixture they probably went with a defensive plan in place and it served them well throughout the game. With a number of absentees from last season, Newton Abbot were a different proposition this time and although their backs put together some promising attacking moves they never looked like scoring through this route.

Despite having a poor day at the lineout the Cockles had enough opportunities to score more points but nonetheless they will be very pleased with the end result. The team that travelled to Newton had some absentees from last season but there were a number of new faces who blended well in their first competitive game in a Cockles shirt. With supporters sunning themselves on the touch line Newton kicked off with little wind to cool things down. Within minutes the home side conceded the first penalty but having kicked for territory the Cockles threw away any advantage with the first of their poor line outs. A wayward kick from the hands handed the initiative back to the home side but new skipper Mark Wathes was on hand to relieve any threat.

After ten minutes early jitters affected Newton Abbot to a greater extent when a poor kick from their defence was fielded by Jack Downie on his own twenty two. The young winger took off in typical style, raced up the pitch, beat off a number of tackles and scored just wide of the posts. The conversion went astray but the Cockles had made the best possible start to settle any nerves. Newton Abbot should have closed the gap within minutes but a penalty kick awarded in front of the posts was hooked to the left. The Cockles came back strongly and prop Paul Flower, honed on a summer of League rugby, picked up in open play gave a good off load to new boy Ben Boswell. He passed to Gary Hooper who kicked through the advancing Newton defence for Dale Sleeman to run on and score. Richard Cadywould made no mistake this time and with the first quarter of the game played the Cockles had posted a 12pts –nil lead. There was no more scoring for the remaining twenty minutes but Graham Smith, another new recruit to the Cockles, was starting to make his presence felt in the back row and made a number of strong runs in open play. Richard Cadywould made a fine break as the interval beckoned but he was held up just short of the line.