Sidmouth Under-15 girls held their nerve to win a thrilling Devon Cup tie, beating Crediton 14-12 thanks to a late try from Lauren Provis and a conversion by Abi Alner.

Crediton had the downhill advantage for the first half and the evenly balanced teams meant that they crossed the line twice in a first half that saw almost the entire play take place in the Sidmouth 22!

There was also one conversion slotted and, at half-time, Crediton held a 12-0 lead.

In the second half, with the slope now in their favour, Sidmouth played on the front foot and laid siege to the Crediton line. However, they were repelled until, with six minutes remaining, and tired legs on show, Sidmouth summoned up sufficient reserves of energy to set up an overlap that gave Lottie Reed an opening and she took it, running from the halfway to score near the posts. Abi Alner converted the additional points.

Buoyed by the score, the Sidmouth team dug deep to go in search of a second score and, with three minutes to, go they got close!

Charlotte Starr, TT Maloney and Tilly Wain combined well to get within metres of the line, but some terrific tackling repelled them. The clock ticked down and there were just 30 seconds remaining when, from a position deep in the heart of their territory, Crediton snatched the ball away and started to drive it away.

However, Sidmouth's Lauren Provis grabbed ball carrier and ball and drove them back over the try line touching the ball down to score and level things up at 12-12.

All that remained was to see if Abi Alner could hold her nerve with the conversion and she did just that, sending the ball between the uprights to seal Sidmouth a sensational win.