Sidmouth Under-16s were emphatic 62-10 winners when they entertained Honiton at Sidford in what was their penultimate group game of the Fishermen’s Cup Plate competition.

Honiton, no doubt impacted by the half-term break, travelled with a diminished squad, meaning the game started with reduced numbers.

This didn’t take anything away from the contest. Indeed, the little extra space on the pitch combined with the excellent firm playing surface ensured that the game was an open and expansive game and certainly a memorable game for the home side’s fly-half Cole Monaghan.

The youngsters helped himself to a six try haul and he also slotted no fewer than six conversions for the 10 tries that an impressive Sidmouth ran in. In all, Monaghan was responsible for a whopping 42 points!

It was a case of ‘forward power’ doing the damage for Sidmouth and they continually won quality ball, sucking in Honiton defensive players. Scrum half Archie Rowe played his part, ensuring the ball was transferred quickly to his half-back partner and on a number of occasions Cole did the rest.

He eased past opposition players almost at will and also exploited any overlaps that opened up, changing the direction of attack.

As well as the stellar performance from Cole, Tom Bree, Ollie Jones and skipper Louis Stamp also got over the whitewash to land tries, but possibly the biggest cheer of the morning came when hooker Jack Jenkins took the ball as first receiver, threw an outrageous dummy and sprinted a full 40 yards to score under the posts!

Honiton, to their credit, didn’t give up. At the beginning of the second half they intercepted a pass to score and shortly afterwards created some space out wide themselves and scored a very impressive second score.

This was reminder for the home side that they couldn’t switch off and had to concentrate right up until the final whistle.

There’s no game for the Under-16s this coming week. They are back in action with their final group game on February 25 when Exmouth will provide the opposition.