Hayle 13 Teignmouth 15

Since the early weeks of the season, December had been pin-pointed as being key to the Teigns’ hopes for promotion. It was felt that two long trips to West Cornwall and a home match against the early pacesetters in the league would give a good indication of their chances of remaining in the hunt up to the end of the season.
The first leg of the challenge was successfully chalked off last Saturday; Hayle are a well-run, well-financed club who have been in the top three of the league all season so far, and the way they controlled the early play showed that they were looking to consolidate their recent results.
After considerable pressure in the first quarter of an hour, the home side took the lead when they turned down the chance to kick an easy penalty, running the ball instead out to left-winger Rob Goodman who scored in the corner.
Although Jamie Frisk was unable to convert the try, he soon increased Hayle’s lead with a penalty, and with just over a quarter of the match gone the travelling Teigns’ supporters feared the worst. Their team had barely been out of their own half at this stage, and the Cornishmen were being well marshalled by their skipper and player-coach Steve Evans.
However, Teignmouth’s forwards slowly but surely began to exert pressure in Hayle territory, giving their backs a chance to run at the Cornish defence. So it was that on the half-hour the ball finally found its way out to the right wing where deadly finisher Will Sowden was on hand to finish off the move with his customary efficiency.
Jarrad Baker was finding kicking as difficult as Frisk had earlier, and missed the conversion. He then took a leaf out of Hayle’s book right on half time by turning down a simple penalty to set up No. 8 James Drew for his second try in consecutive games. This time the conversion was a formality, and Teignmouth reached the interval with a 12-8 lead.
Conditions changed for the worse during half-time, as the temperature dropped and driving rain started to make life difficult for players on both sides. However, Teignmouth’s forwards dealt better with this, and put the Hayle defence under considerable pressure for the first quarter of an hour of the second half. Unfortunately this dominance only translated into three points as a Baker penalty was all the visitors had to show for their efforts.
The last 20 minutes saw Hayle come back into the match with a vengeance, but the Teigns’ defensive qualities shone through as they have so often this season; it was only when they were reduced to 14 men after a yellow card was shown to flanker Adam Dowsing at the beginning of injury time, that the home side finally broke through with another try from Goodman. Once again, he touched down in the corner, but left far too much for Prisk to do with the conversion which would have tied the scores.
There was still a nervy few minutes for 14-man Teignmouth to hold off the Cornishmen, but the final whistle was greeted with delight by players, management and supporters alike. Leg One of Operation December had been successfully completed, and coach Simon Morrell professed himself delighted with the performance of the team as a whole, but reserved special mention for the pack and their heroic performance in the second half.
And so after this defeat of the third-placed side, Teignmouth now face second-placed Honiton at Bitton Park this Saturday (KO 3pm) Another victory would see the Teigns in the top 3 at the halfway point of the season, and in an ideal position to turn the dream of promotion into reality.