Sidmouth Under-11s entertained Newton Abbot at Sidford on another glorious winter’s morning.

Sidmouth knew Newton Abbot would be tough opposition having lost to them in the Devon tournament final at the end of last season.

The home side began strongly and were on the front foot from the start, dominating territory in the early exchanges.

During this period of dominance, Ollie Marsh opened the scoring with a typical forceful burst straight through the middle of the visiting defence!

Next on the score sheet for Sidmouth was Charlie Brock who gathered a loose ball from the tackle and bulldozed his way over the line.

Newton Abbot fought back with two breakaway tries of their own before George Tanner put Sidmouth back in the ascendancy with a score following some great counter rucking from the home forwards.

The second quarter saw Sidmouth get their passing and offloading game going allowing them to take control of the match scoring three tries without reply from Finn Cotton and two from Ollie Marsh.

Once again the visitors hit back and scored twice via their impressive forward line. However, Sidmouth’s speedsters were soon back in the thick of the action with both Tom Cload and Will Pulman scoring excellent wingers tries, starting their try-scoring moves from deep in their own half.

The third quarter was a high scoring affair with Sidmouth striking first following some more dogged rucking from the forwards that ended with the impressive Jack Fanning to burst through the opposition and touch down.

A period of Sidmouth dominance followed during which time they produced a period of their best passing rugby to date this campaign.

Luca Manning was next onto the score sheet, crowing twice in quick succession.

The last quarter was little different from the previous three, with the hosts in the driving seat, winning the majority of the battles with some impressive tackling from Callum French and Jake Paget combined with solid rucking from Charlie Farmington-Smith and forceful carries from Dylan Ayling and Dev Nair.

The determined Nair, roared on by the home support, was halted just millimetres short of the try line, looking for his first score for the club!

The final score was 15-10 to the home side and all the players can feel confident with their contributions to an exceptional team performance.