Sidmouth Under-11s met Exmouth in a local derby played at Sidford.
Sidmouth, with depleted numbers for once, were just shy of being able to field two full teams.
However, they were able to welcome back Ollie Marchant for his first game of the season and another popular return came from Chris Wallace, able to make his first training.
Against that, on the down side, Henry Tanner, although present, was not able to take part in the games due to nursing an ankle injury.
As for the action, the match, played across four quarters, each of 12 minutes duration, was keenly contested and the final score did not reflect the nature of the game.
The key to the Exmouth success was that they clinically finished off ‘break-through’ tries utilising the speed they had in a couple of their players and also one missed tackle that also led to a try.
Special mention must be made of the three girls who each made a big contribution to the Sidmouth cause.
Leah Patch, Emma Nancekivell and Tilly Bennett worked well together and that bodes well for next season when the girls will leave ‘mixed rugby’ to play in the Sidmouth girls U13 team.
James Klein put in a great defensive effort and covered a lot of ground in attack too while Will Horne showed that he had remembered his tackle lessons. Indeed such was his tackling that he did not let go of a single player who attempted to pass him down the wing! He was consistently able to slow the opposition player down until support arrived to tackle into touch! Young Horne’s shift was a great example of not giving up!
Jack Ponting was most unfortunate not to bag an interception try and both Eli Moss and Jude Horrocks made some great tackles and also made good inroads into the Cockles defence. Isaac Wall scored one of the Sidmouth tries.
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