Sidmouth Under-9s experienced their first ‘full contact tackling’ action of the season when they hosted Honiton.

Sidmouth had excellent numbers for the fixture and were able to field four teams, while the visitors put out two sides with all the young players having to quickly get accustomed to the increased size of pitch that their age group would now play on!

On pitch one, Honiton struck first, but the response was good with Hugo Brock bagging the first home try. Young Brook soon crossed for a second and, in an end-to-end contest, there were further tries from the visitors while Maddie Russell and Sean Cload, both well supported by Zac Dunstan and Adam Turley, kept the scoreboard ticking over and the final whistle blew to leave Sidmouth 5-4 winners. One contribution of extreme note was the shift of Oscar Burston, who stopped Honiton from scoring numerous times with some outstanding tackling.

On pitch two, Will Creek and Baden Strawbridge tackled superbly and Giles Borough made some crucial recovery tackles. Defensively, the Sidmouth team was very good against a useful Honiton outfit that edged the contest. Owen Farrington Smith, Charlie Findlay and Noah Kenny all impressed for the home team.

In Sidmouth’s second round of games players showed determination, but with Honiton finding a second wind, it was the visitors who took the match honours. For Sidmouth, Euan Kirk, Elliot Allen, Harry Butterfield and Felix Chatwin, all impressed.

In the final match, Robson Dare, Jamie Young and Elsie Wiltshire made some great darting runs up the wing, but the Honiton defensive tacking prevented the Sidmouth team from scoring and, despite fine contributions from Charlie Cole, Nathan Yeo and George Ward, a few too many missed tackles, coupled with Honiton stepping up their attack, led to another Honiton success.

What was most pleasing from a coaching perspective was how the Sidmouth teams kept their lines across the pitch and the support play was generally good. It’s clear that there are plenty of positives for the coaching staff to work with over the coming months.

Sidmouth RFC are still very happy to welcome new players to the Under-9 section and anyone interested in finding out more is asked to visit the Sidmouth RFC Junior’s website.