Sidmouth RFC Under-9s entertained Newton Abbot at the club’s Sidford pitches and, despite sickness amongst the young players, the hosts were still able to field a squad of 20 enabling them to field two teams, both to play a pair of games.

Team Patch, largely unchanged from the previous week, were a little subdued to begin with and took some time to fine their usual rhythm.

There was plenty of strong tackling across the board, but not quite enough to keep the opposition at bay and the first half definitely went to the visitors.

After a pep talk from coach Patch, the second half saw a much more cohesive home team with the previous week’s Player of the Day, Isaac Wall, at the centre of things with his infectious work rate. The Wall industry, combined with Charlie Nancekivell’s physical input – something the team have missed in recent weeks – and the attacking pace and guile of Aiden Corefield, meant that the visitors were made to work much harder throughout the second half, but ultimately they’d left it too late to change the destiny of the game.

In their second game however, team Patch were superb in a first half that saw them race into a four try advantage and, although the attritional play started to take its toll, they hung on to claim victory. The win would surely have been more comfortable had Noah Clifton and Jack Bell been able to finish off a superb attacking move they were both deeply involved in, simply dotting the ball down rather than juggle it between them to unfortunately allow a turnover and subsequent try to be conceded! (That moment did provide an excellent coaching point to be put across to the youngsters).

Team Moss had a great day with some good play across the team and some continued improvements from the likes of Karan Bountra and Joseph Hooper while Henry Tanner, Eli Moss and Sam Smart tested the visitors with their mix of direct and mazy running. Their first game was a bit too loose however, and the spoils went to Newton Abbot.

The second game was a much tighter affair with Will Garland doing a lot of work, supported by Jude Horrocks and they did themselves proud by coming up with a draw.

The player of the week award went to Will Russell for fantastic tackles - taking down even the biggest of the visitors – and his regular supply of excellent passing and running – well done Will!

Training resumes on the January 8, at the Sidford Pitches, Last, but not least, the coaching staff wish all players a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.