Events/News

Roseland versus Salcombe

Having had a bye in the first round of the Papa John Shield, Salcombe made the long journey to Roseland deep down towards the Lizard peninsular. They took a good squad but only 2 replacements so supporters were nervous, especially as Roseland had finished 3rd in their league, the equivalent of Devon 3.



That nervousness was justified when after 10 minutes against the run of play Roseland scored a good try wide out, in part due to an absence of tackling by Salcombe. Their excellent kicker then put over a good conversion and gave the Crabs a warning not to concede penalties in a kickable position.

Salcombe quickly replied with a beautiful try of their own. Kieron Clarke picked up the ball from the base of a scrum 30 metres out and set off on one of his bullocking runs. The home defenders underestimated both his speed and strength and as he was about to be pulled down almost over the line he flipped a superb offload to the attendant Toby Woods, playing scrum half today, who dotted down for the score. Lee Clarke converted and scores were now even 7-7. Five minutes later we were all treated to a reprise of that try when the same two players repeated their earlier play, Clarke converted and Salcombe were now ahead 14-7.

Having got the measure of Salcombe Roseland tightened their defence and started to use their big runners to make inroads or to use their kickers to get the ball deep into Salcombe territory. Something of a stalemate ensued with no further score.

The second half gave the Crabs the advantage of the slight slope and more or less from the kick off Salcombe were awarded a penalty which Lee Clarke converted to make it 17-7. Play then became much more even with Salcombe having to put in some heroic defending on their own line against the heavyweight homeside runners. But it wasn't enough and Roseland managed to score wide out which again they converted to bring the scores up to 17-14 to Salcombe. However Salcombe weren't done and added 8 more points as Roseland visibly tired. Firstly Oli Masters who had been ferocious in defence all afternoon caught a Roseland kick in midfield , split the opposing centres and powered over the line in a classy finish. The conversion just missed but at 22 -14 the home side would have to score twice to win. This was made more difficult when Lee Clarke slotted another penalty to move Salcombe on to a 25-14 advantage. The last few minutes of the game were pretty fraught with play close to the Salcombe line and the Crabs were very pleased to hear the final whistle. 

Although the game was a bit more nip and tuck than Salcombe might have liked, for a small club to travel 100 miles or so and win away is no small achievement, not least in the organisation required to put a team on the field that far away and congratulations must go to Tom Woods for his meticulous organisation. Thanks too to our generous sponsor who paid for the coach. Congratulations to the boys themselves for a gritty performance and especially to Matt Hurst who had travelled down from Monmouth for the game and who put in some telling hits on the home sides big men.

 Salcombe's reward for the win is a home fixture this Saturday 3 May against North Tawton ko 3pm. North Tawton finished 2nd in their league, Devon 3 N and E ,so a lively encounter can be expected.