Thursday 26 September, 2019, by Oli Masters
SRFC beat Plympton Victoria RFC 64-13
Salcombe Assembled for their last league game of the season on the club’s Vice Presidents day in a confident mood. Recent performances had been positive despite not getting the win that they may have deserved and the Crab’s were keen to shake of the mantle of plucky but ultimately beaten underdogs. The days opposition had also targeted the fixture as a possible win having gained a small measure of momentum in recent weeks and on paper at least it looked to be a competitive fixture with two league places separating the two teams.
Salcombe started the better of the two teams and a penalty kick from Fly Half Lee Clarke gave the Crabs field position in the Plym Vic 22, the resulting line out saw inside centre Liam Wills slice through the defence to score under the posts. A few minutes later and a near carbon copy of the first try was repeated only this time Centre partner Mark Parnowski was the one to dot down. Salcombe then scored a third and forth try after Kieron Clarke who was making his return from injury and playing in the novel position of second row, burst up the wing (perhaps keen to get back his former shirt) to scamper over the line followed shortly by full back Craig Julian who was loitering near a ruck and found himself with the ball. Salcombe didn’t have it all their own way in the first half and the visitors were punishing the multiple errors that Salcombe were making particularly from restarts which were a problem all day and indiscipline caused by too many people trying to be Ritchie McCaw, a sustained period of Plympton pressure saw them score near the posts and then kick a penalty to make the score 21 8 at the mid-way point of the first half. Salcombe heeded the warning of the referee and got back to scoring ways through the greedy centre partnership Wills and Parnowski who each bagged a second after good work from the half backs Prawn Sandwich and Clarke in putting them into space.
The second half started against the run of play with the Visitors getting an unconverted try for their final points of the day before Salcombe began to find their feet again. A cheeky quick tap penalty from ever alert winger Oli Masters saw him race in from 30 meters out for his 9th try of the season, before a follow up from number 8 Nick Bidwell using his go go gadget arms to reach for the line after a good drive. Then came a first try for flanker Steve Moran after a great break from replacement back row Matt Hurst who popped to Fly Half Clarke who nearly got his name on the score sheet for a try after a length of the field sprint, unfortunately he was just a bit too slow. Undeterred however the elder Clarke got his 5 pointer after a miss kick from the Plympton pivot was worked back into an attacking position by the Crab’s back three before sending him over in the corner for the final score of the game.
The playing rest of the playing squad consisted of Winterbottom, Davey, Trant, Sinnott, Cooper, Turvey L, Turvey M, Herselman who in no way got injured, Winzer and Man of the Match Jay “the Proto-J” Hannaford.
This display wrapped up the league season for the Crabs who bettered their final league position from last year by 1 place even with starting the season on -5 points, they scored 57 more points (despite having a match against the bottom side cancelled) than last year, had a better points difference, scored the same amount of try scoring bonus points and gained more losing bonus points. Thanks once again go to Head Coach James Mundy for his efforts and patience this season, the committee and the players for giving us a team and club to play for each week. WACOMS.