Salcombe First XV beat Topsham (24-22)

28th Jan 2012

This was a much better performance by Salcombe building considerably on the improvement they showed last week. Playing away against genuine promotion contenders was always going to be a tough call and despite an early set back Salcombe showed true character to gain the maximum 5 points.

Topsham rely heavily on their speedy wings who have plenty of room to move at home on their very wide pitch. The home side demonstrated this within 2 minutes of the start when shoving the Salcombe set scrum back ten yards they whipped the ball out to their right wing who cantered over wide out. Although the kick failed it looked as if it might be a long afternoon for Salcombe.

However the Crabs had other ideas and took firm control of the match and were unlucky when a couple of difficult penalty kicks were missed. A promising move in the backs was just squeezed out into touch and the ever present Ian Smerdon charged down a Topsham clearance, gathered the ball but with 40 yards to go and no support he was pulled down just short of the line. All this hard work was then wasted when a poor kick out of defence by Salcombe went straight to the home sides backs who moved the ball quickly to score a converted try bringing the score to 12-0 to Topsham.

But Salcombe made amends when Sean Baker won a Topsham throw in and Chris Drew put in a great diagonal kick. Darren Hopkins chasing the ball prevented the Topsham winger from offloading and Lewis Winzer was on hand to rip the ball out and go over for a try which Scott Lowry then converted. Right on the dot of half time Topsham got a penalty to bring the score to 15-7 to the home side.

At the break it was obvious that Topsham were suffering from the Crabs very physical defence.They had used all three substitutes by half timeand resumed the second half with several walking wounded. Both Rupert Bevan and Liam Wills had crunched their opposite numbers who seemed as a result to be less keen on going onto contact. Additionally several of the Topsham forward were showing signs of the wear and tear they had suffered in the loose at the hands of James Cooper, Smerdon and Stuart Winzer.

The second half started with Salcombe pressing hard and being held up across the line. In particular Symon Cater called up at the last moment for this game and enjoying himself immensely in the physical contact, appeared hard done by when the ref denied his apparent touch down. In a change of tactics the forwards secured a loose ball and instead of battering away themselves they gave the backs the ball who functioned smoothly to allow Darren Hopkins to score wide out. Lowrys difficult conversion failed.

Now at 15-12 down Salcombe sensed that the match could be theirs and following a line out from a penalty Simon Keen kicked deep into home territory. With Bevan looming menacingly their backs then fumbled the ball allowing the winger to gratefully scoop up the ball for the try which Drew converted. This put Salcombe 19-15 ahead and there soon followed the best move of the game which allowed Stuart Winzer to go over for the try which was unconverted. The forwards had put together a number of phases before releasing the ball to the backs who then got close to the try line. With the ball coming back to the forwards there was some very smart interpassing which ripped the Topsham defence apart and allowed Winzer to go over thus rewarding a great performance by him throughout the match.

Very late in the game some sloppy Salcombe defence gave Topsham a soft try under the posts to bring up the final score and give Salcombe their first 4 try bonus point of the season.

This week the 1s and 2s both entertain Wessex at home with the 1s ko at 2.30 and the 2s at 4.15. Wessex are runaway league leaders but with Salcombe playing much better there could be an upset.

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Salcombe First XV beat Topsham (24-22)