Sat 20 Oct 2018
Newton Abbot “All Whites” put together one of their strongest performances of the season, but nevertheless ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
There was little to choose between two well matched sides with Exmouth’s man of the match David Bargent making the difference with a try in each half.
The home side made a great start with two early tries, but the sustained spell of pressure deserved more than 10 points; however, Exmouth defended really well to limit the damage.
Newton’s first try came after No. 8 Jarryd Harris rescued scrappy scrummage ball, before sending his scrum-half Matt Jess on a run to the line. Jess was hauled down with a high tackle a couple of metres short; advantage was played and Harris followed up to score from short range. As the conversion was missed by fly half Tom Putt, a penalty try and yellow for the high tackle would have been the preferable outcome.
More pressure on Exmouth’s line led to Newton’s second; Jess sniped down the blindside of a ruck near the corner flag. This try also went unconverted.
In between these scores, Newton were forced into early changes with the influential Harris and captain Dean Avery both injured to be replaced respectively by Chris Courtier and Matt Dowrick.
Exmouth cut the deficit with a 45 metre penalty from full back Tom Whelan before No. 8 Bargent scored his first. Newton failed to man mark down the blindside of a ruck on their 22, leaving Bargent with a free run down the touchline for a corner post try.
The “All Whites” soon found themselves under further pressure, but centre Kevin Dennis intercepted on his own “22” and raced in to score near the posts; unfortunately this try also went unconverted leaving Newton 15-8 ahead after half an hour.
From the restart, Putt returned the ball with a long downfield kick that Bargent caught and ran back. It needed a last ditch tackle from Jess to stop the rampaging No. 8 from scoring.
Having kept their line intact, ideally Newton needed to take their seven point lead into the break and beyond but Exmouth scored tries immediately before and after half time to go in front and stay in front.
A succession of pick and goes from the visiting forwards paved the way for a try for scrum half Sam Fulthorpe who burrowed over from short range. Whelan pushed his conversion wide of the posts leaving Newton 15-13 to the good at the turn.
This lead evaporated within a minute of the resumption. Newton received the kick off, punted long to Bargent who ran back 60 metres through ineffectual tackling to score his second.
Exmouth – with a display of patient, keep ball rugby – then denied Newton possession and as a consequence forced a series of penalties. Eventually Newton dragged down a lineout, conceding a penalty try and losing player/coach Colin Stewart to the bin.
Newton then upped the pace and ran the ball at every opportunity. Centre Kyle Browne created one of the best chances, but couldn’t quite beat the last man. However, cynically killing the ball cost Exmouth a penalty – it could easily have been a bigger sanction – which was put over by Putt on the hour mark.
A further Putt penalty left Newton needing a try to win, but in the face of some last ditch defending there was no way to the visitors line in a frantic conclusion to a tight match.
It was a notable win for Exmouth who hadn’t won on the road for a year, they started the day in fifth and stayed there.
Newton began the match in eleventh spot, but slipped into the relegation zone as a consequence of Bracknell’s 38-21 home win over Camborne.
Next up for the “All Whites” is another Devon derby; tomorrow they travel to Ivybridge to experience the recently laid 4G surface, k.o. 2.30pm.
The Spartans were due to host Ivybridge Seconds at Rackerhayes, but the Cross-in-Hand second string cried off on Monday evening; an alternative game is being sought.
Please enter your page detail here. This can be HTML or text. To edit click the first menu icon on the small HTML menu that appears when you click on this text. Please use the elements on the right if you wish to construct a richer page content with headers, images and layout grids.
