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More misery for Teigns

More misery for Teigns

Paul Williams2 Dec 2016 - 12:22
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https://www.teignmouthrfc.co.u

Injuries throw plans into disarray

By Malcolm Heap

TRIBUTE SOUTH WEST ONE (WEST)

THORNBURY 47 TEIGNMOUTH 7

A week after shipping 47 points against league leaders Weston, Teignmouth repeated the trick as they were again heavily defeated away from home by second-in-the-table Thornbury.

Already shorn of at least four key players because of injury and unavailability, the Teigns soon found themselves further weakened during the opening fast and furious ten minutes as their back row specialist Luke Pattison and speedy full back Danny Luffman sustained injuries which put them out for the rest of the game.

With no changeovers available from that point onwards, all the players had to put in a huge workload for the full eighty minutes. The backs were rearranged so that Neil Johns moved from wing to full back, and back row forward Pete Ingoldsby played a sound game out of position as a winger.

Thornbury ran in five tries in the first half all from their backs Rob Higgitt, Will Sharratt, Mike Beswick, and twice from Dai Matthews. Fly half Tom Luke converted four of the five tries so that the half time score was 33 – 0.

The second half, with Teignmouth having the advantage of the slope, was more even but Thornbury still managed two tries by their forwards, to an intercepted try under the post by Henry “Reg” Raby which was converted by Matt Laventure. Thus the final score as darkness descended was 47 to 7.

Post match analysis by Forwards Coach Colin Aldworth was that Thornbury were a quality team who offered very stiff resistance and punished any mistakes. A view from the stand was that Thornbury had a distinct home advantage, in that they kicked intelligently to gain level ground, whereas Teignmouth’s forwards worked very hard against the slope gaining only small amounts of ground for lots of effort.

Aldworth and Head Coach Marc Dibble will be hoping that the injury crisis clears this week in advance of Saturday's Devon Derby at home against fifth-placed Bideford.

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