Salcombe First XV beat South Molton (24-13)

17th Sep 2011

After last week's cup match at South Molton it was the turn of the Crabs to host the North Devon opposition and for the second week it was Salcombe who came out on top. Much of the credit for this must go to the Salcombe half backs Lewis Winzer and Chris Drew who between them bossed the Crabs game and ensured by and large that the players stuck to the game plan. Chris Drew also had a great game with the boot slotting 3 penalties, a drop goal and a conversion to end up with a personal tally of 14 points.

Playing into the stiff wind and with the sun in their eyes Salcombe dominated both territory and possession and looked consistently threatening. In order to keep them out South Molton inevitably infringed and Drew kicked two penalties in the first quarter to ease the Crabs ahead. However Salcombe made mistakes at the restarts and put themselves under pressure needlessly but were sufficiently disciplined to defend well and get themselves out of trouble. At the back Simon Keen was all calm composure fielding kicks out of the sun and kicking well to snuff out the visitors attacks and the Salcombe back row of James Cooper, Kevin Wreyford and Stuart Winzer mopped up most of the loose ball. All was going to plan when a lapse of concentration by Salcombe allowed an unpromising bit of visitor's ball on the half way to develop into a well taken try as a number of defenders slipped off the tackle. The fairly easy kick failed leaving Salcombe 6-5 ahead. Salcombe then regained control and were rewarded when Drew dropped a goal to bring up the half time score of 9-5 to the home side.

Turning round at half time the elements decided not to favour Salcombe as the wind dropped and the sun clouded over thereby taking the advantage that South Molton had had in the first half. Nothing daunted the Crabs set about securing the victory with two great tries in the first few minutes of the half. Both were set up by the pack winning good ball and livewire Lewis Winzer choosing to attack down the blind side. The first released captain Darren Hopkins who ran in spectacularly for 50 yards to go over under the posts and the second saw Anthony Squire put in a great run to score wide out. Drew converted the first try but missed with the second, his only failure of the afternoon. With the score now at 21-5 to the home side there were hopes of a bonus point for four tries but it was not to be. South Molton rallied and defended well before a loose pass from Salcombe was grabbed by the visitor's centre who ran in for the try which was not converted. Thereafter there was an exchange of penalties to give a final score of 24-13 to the Crabs.

This was a heartening win for Salcombe at the start of the league season and everyone played well. Inevitably mistakes were made and in particular the re-starts were terrible both receiving and following up with no one apparently wanting to take ownership of the ball. But that aside it was a good performance. Next week the 1s are at home to New Cross in the second round of the National Cup Devon Eliminator and it is hoped that the 2s will have their first outing of the season at DHSOB with President Paul Roberts taking on the management of the 2s. Both matches will kick off at 3.0pm.

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Salcombe First XV beat South Molton (24-13)