Withycombe 12 Teignmouth 9

The talk in the Withycombe club house before the match was of a disappointing start to the season for the home side, marked by several narrow defeats, so the joy shown by the Withies’ players and supporters alike at the final whistle was perhaps understandable. But there was an element of relief in this reaction, as Teignmouth turned the screw during a lengthy period of injury time.
Last season there was little to choose between the sides as each won a narrow away victory, and finished next to one another in the league table, and little seems to have changed over the summer.
The Teigns went into the game on the back of an away victory against Tavistock, and were looking to challenge for a place in the promotion shake-up, and this defeat, albeit with the consolation prize of a losing bonus point, was perhaps a reality check for those dreaming of a higher division for next season.
Teignmouth will certainly have to address their discipline if they are to get their promotion campaign back on track. In a try-less match, the statistics show that the visitors gave away far too many kickable penalties, and were probably fortunate to be only 6-3 down at the break as Withycombe’s 17 year old fly-half Tom Steer kicked two but missed three in difficult, windy conditions. Matt Moses was on the mark for the Teigns with his only opportunity of the first half.
It would be wrong to conclude that this was a boring, forward-dominated struggle; true, the packs of both teams got through an enormous amount of work, and in this respect Teignmouth gave at least as good as they got. However, there were several promising running and passing movements, especially from the visitors, but the defences were exceptionally strong and the Withies’ backs got through an enormous amount of tackling, so that try-scoring opportunities were almost non-existent.
The pattern of the match changed little in the second half, except that Teignmouth were now able to take advantage of the slope and the wind, and by the 55th minute had taken the lead with two well-struck Moses penalties. However, they were still finding themselves on the wrong end of the referee Giles Phillips’s whistle, and soon conceded an easy penalty for Steer to convert.
As the game moved towards its climax, Mr Phillips’s patience ran out, and captain Colin Aldworth was shown a yellow card for the last of a series of infringements conceded by the the visitors. Steer scored what proved to be the winning points.
Although there were only 4 minutes left on the clock, the physios had spent a considerable amount of time on the pitch as the ferocity of the tackling left players strewn across the ground. Withycombe’s replacement Chris Ellor suffered a particularly worrying injury which required lengthy treatment, but he was able to leave the pitch under his own steam. So it was no surprise that Mr Phillips allowed almost 15 minutes of injury time, during which Teignmouth could have drawn or won the match.
After sustained pressure on the home line, the Teigns won a penalty under the posts. It seemed that a draw would be snatched at the death, but Teignmouth chose to take the scrum in a brave attempt to win the game. It almost paid off, as centre Will Sowden went over and believed he had touched down; sadly for him Mr Phillips felt that the ball had been help up, and, to rub salt in the wound, immediately blew up for full time.
Teignmouth will be looking to put this defeat behind them when they welcome Torrington to Bitton Park for a 3 o’clock kick off this Saturday.