Seriously tough

Sidmouth U13 19, Cullompton 26

This was a seriously tough match. Cullompton had brought 15 very good players. Sidmouth had 27 and the coaches decided to pick two well balanced sides to play each half, writes Chris Robinson.

Sidmouth were soon made aware that they were in for a torrid morning as they watched Counsell, one of the bigger players, being knocked backwards in the tackle! Fortunately this spurred him into action and he managed to score three well taken tries. The best resulted from a fantastic kick from Dunn, who also had two successful conversions. In fact I think it is safe to say that Sidmouth in the first half played fantastic rugby.

The big ball carriers bashed holes in the defence, the back row secured quick ball and the backs were excellent . You could not have asked for more. Cullompton did manage a score, but it was a breathless first half.

In the second half Cullompton started to tackle ruthlessly, then win the rucks and get it out to their ‘electric’ centre who scored three unanswered tries. Wright’s disallowed try at the end would have tied the scores which could have been seen as a fair result.

Sidmouth’s effort was superb and a lot of lessons will have been learned, not least, brilliant defence can win matches.