Vets 29 - 38 Young Un's

This annual fixture between Exmouth Vets and Young Un’s is proving to be another successful date in the Clubs calendar.  The game was played in true festive spirit in front of a good crowd of spectators eager to blow away the Christmas Day cobwebs.  The match was helped along by some interesting refereeing decisions from Dan Gorfin who was assisted by Touch Judge Nigel Harris.

The Vets side featured for the first time 4 of the Wright brothers with a total age of 179 years.  Brothers Tim Dave and Mike have not played for many years, but Rugby Director Chris played last year for the Exmouth Accidentals.  The oldest player on the field for the Vets was Roger Holman.

The Young Un’s featured 4 of this years Senior Colts.  Matt Cain, the youngest player on the field was Captain and he played along with Dan Swallow, Kevin Rodwell and Grant Vaughan-Atkins.  Also in the Young Un’s side were Dale Sleeman and Paul Morgan who had just returned to Exmouth from their travels oversees.

It was good to see father Joe O’Connell playing for the Vets against son Archie O’Connell in the Young Uns side.

The Vets had all the early play despite some punishing runs by the Young Uns three quarters.  In the first 30 minutes the Vets scored 2 tries firstly by Al Griffin from a forward drive, converted by John Flinn, and the second was when Ian Urmston crashed over in the corner but the difficult conversion went wide.

The Young Uns began to move the ball between the three quarters and in the last 5 minutes of the first half both Dale Sleeman and Rich Cadywould went over for tries, Cadywould converting both giving them a narrow 14 – 12 lead at the break.

After some suitable half time refreshment and a team talk from Vets Manager Stan Jordan, the Vets continued to take the Young Uns on up front but were left aghast when a dropped pass was snatched up by Dave Harris and passed to referee Dan Gorfin who then offloaded for Cadywould to score under the posts, kicking his own conversion.  Stan Jordan is still working out a suitable fine for this intervention!!

Not downhearted, the Vets replied quickly when Les Monk went over in the corner receiving the ball from Steve Oates.  Neil Hooper missed the long range conversion.  Straight from the re-start, the Young Uns split the Vets defence to allow Kevin Rodwell to go over for his first Senior try. 

The Young Uns increased their lead further when Dale Sleeman divided the Vets centers to put Paul Morgan in for a try but his drop goal conversion was missed.

Not to be outdone, 2 further tries in 5 minutes, firstly by Ricky Croal and then by Hooper, one of which was converted, reduced the margin to only 2 points but in the closing minutes of the game Morgan put the game beyond doubt with a fine individual try which Cadywould converted giving the Young Uns a 38 – 29 victory.

Man of the Match for the Vets was awarded to Simon Wade and for the Young Uns, Man of the Match was Matt Cain.

Vets Squad:  Manager Stan Jordan.  Ricky Croal (Capt) The 4 Wright Brothers, Roger and Jim Nye,  Nick Smith, Simon Wade, Ian Harris, Neil Hooper, John Flinn, Ian Jordan, Al Griffin, Ian Dunstan, Tim Laye, Andy Barnard, Ian Urmston, Joe O’Connell, Roger Holman, Les Monk, Steve Oates and guesting for the day Jack Downie.

Young Uns Squad:  Managers Geoff Coombes and Chris Witkiss.
Matt Cain (Capt), Liam Millman, Rich Cadywould, Rich Crellin, Andy Lendon, Paul Flower, Jack Westlake, Donny Lynaghan, Joe Perkins, Nathan Budd, Archie O’Connell, Dale Sleeman, Kevin Rodwell, Paul Morgan, Dan Swallow, Dave Harris, Leigh Ellis, Grant Vaughan-Atkins, Dean Davis.

Left to Wright: Chris, Dave, Mike and Tim