Teigns blown away in Somerset

TRIBUTE SOUTH WEST ONE (WEST)

CLEVEDON 38 TEIGNMOUTH 3

If anyone thought that the previous week’s home victory over Chard signalled the beginning of promotion campaign, they were soon disabused of that notion as a depleted Teignmouth side never properly got to grips with Clevedon’s powerful running game.

It was clear from the first few minutes that this was going to be a long and difficult afternoon for the visitors as the North Somerset side regularly punched holes in a hesistant defensive line. To make matters worse, Clevedon had done their homework, and were well-prepared to combat Teignmouth’s rolling maul, a tactic which has brought them so many points over the past two or three seasons.

The result was that Clevedon always looked menacing, and it was somewhat of a surprise that their half-time lead was only 14-3, following tries from Aaron Rice and Dean Ashfield, both of which were converted by Kieran Hill. Teignmouth’s only answer was a penalty from Faolan Lidstone just before the break.

The Teigns best period came at the beginning of the second half when they were camped in the Clevedon 22 for a while, and the hosts found themselves down to 14 men following a succession of penalties. However, by fair means or foul they managed to resist the visitors’ best efforts, and then broke away for Harvey Butland, the brother of England and Stoke City goalkeeper Jack, to score in the corner.

At this point the Teignmouth heads drooped a little and the floodgates opened. Four more tries followed from Tom Thie, Joe Ford, Rice and Mike Taylor, with Taylor adding two conversions.

While recognising that his squad is slightly on the thin side for this level, coach Marc Dibble acknowledged that his team didn’t really put a shift, and that South West One can be a merciless place if you’re not right on top of your game from the first whistle. At the end of the match he urged his players to put this one behind them and to dig deep in training in order to prepare themselves for this Saturday’s home match against Drybrook.