Sidmouth Under-13s powered their way into the final of the Devon Cup with a 13-7 success over Devonport Services.

The Blackmore was a sun-kissed venue for the semi-final and there was a terrific turnout of upport for both teams for what turned out to be an excellent advert for junior rugby.

Devonport kicked off, Sidmouth gathered, set up a ruck, fed quick ball to Kris Purkis, playing at fly-half, and he stepped inside his opposite number and proceeded to outpace the covering full back to score in the corner!

It was a superb start, the like of which the home team – and coaching staff – could only have dreamt of in such a high profile game!

The early score drew a response from Devonport and they spent the next 15 minutes camped in the Sidmouth half, but thanks to a very aggressive defence (not always within the laws according to the referee) all the visitors could manage was a penalty!

This encouraged the Sidmouth boys to start to take control and, after a series of rucks and mauls, quick ball was spread along the back line to the teams very own version of the ‘Billy Wizz’ charachter, James Nicholls, and he raced away to score in the corner to send the home side into the half-time break with a 10-3 lead.

In the second half, playing down the slope, Sidmouth played with both confidence and belief.

They were soon dominating both ball and territory.

However, in their haste to finish off a spirited Devonport side, the final pass more often than not went astray!

However, the inevitable score did finally arrive and it came following a jinking run from Thomas Mead who doted down under the posts.

Kris Purkis slotted the conversion to complete the scoring.

Sidmouth coach Mark Williams said: “It really was a fantastic effort from the boys and special mention must go to the replacements who didn’t actually get on, but cheered their team mates on throughout. That showed tremendous team spirit and underlined what a credit to each other and their team mates this lot truly are.”