Teignmouth 31 Liskeard & Looe 12

Teignmouth 31 Liskeard & Looe 12
In the match programme notes it was revealed that a promotion to the Western Counties league has been made a target for the First XV this year, and a Bonus Point victory was certainly what coach Simon Morrell was expecting.
However, as so often at this level of rugby, the final scoreline does not tell the full story of a hard-fought match where the Teigns certainly didn’t have everything their own way.
With perfect weather for cricket, the conditions for rugby were difficult to say the least; despite all of the rain which we have suffered this summer, the pitch was hard and bumpy, and temperatures in the midst of the scrums and rucks must have been unpleasant in the extreme.
Nevertheless, in the first 30 minutes Teignmouth began to show signs of why they are among the favourites for promotion; most of the game was played in the Liskeard & Looe half, and whenever the ball came out to the backs the home side looked likely to score. Sadly, this was all too rare an occurrence, as the visitors stuck to their game plan, relying on a big pack of forwards keeping the game tight. However, sometimes they over-stepped the line of legality, resulting in a series of penalties. Although Teignmouth began by kicking to touch, eventually they decided to take the points and called up Will Luscombe to open the scoring.
The Teignmouth pressure continued, and finally, in the 30th minute Rob Parsons marked his league debut with a try from close quarters which Luscombe converted.
This setback only spurred the Cornishmen on, and a long period of fierce pressure on the Teignmouth line finally resulted in a pushover try from fly half Baz Hocking, which he converted himself.
This was a disappointing end to a lacklustre half, and Morrell had plenty to say during the break. With their ears still ringing, the Teigns made an impressive start to the second half, with a try from Shaun Lovett after just 2 minutes, as he finished off one of the few flowing back moves up to that point. Luscombe converted.
Despite more Cornish pressure in the last 20 minutes, the Teignmouth defence held firm with some fearsome tackling from the backs, and when they managed to move upfield they were twice able to take advantage of the gaps left by the visitors. First, scrum-half Stef Walker used some quick thinking from a tapped penalty to run 40 yards and touch down under the posts, and in the 5th minute of injury time Will Sowden finally found a gap and ran in from a similar distance. Luscombe completed a full set of conversions.
After the match Morrell was less than 100% happy with the performance. In his opinion Teignmouth are going to be the team that everyone else in the league wants to beat this year, and he warned his squad that they will have to cope better with teams trying to strangle the life out of them up front. It is a measure of the high standards that he has set his team that he was dissatisfied despite the large margin of victory. Nevertheless, he was delighted with the result and the 5 points, and sees no reason to change his opinion that his squad are well able to work their way out of this league.
This Saturday sees Teignmouth head to Cornwall for a difficult looking encounter with Newquay Hornets.