Saltash 11 Teignmouth 14

Teignmouth kept up their excellent start to the season with victory at fifth-placed Saltash, but they had to work hard for the points against a solid and determined Cornish side. They were not helped in their cause when top try scorer Will Sowden was sent off after only 30 minutes and the side had to play more than half of the game with a maximum of 14 players. Yellow cards in the second half saw the Teigns with only 12 men on the pitch at one stage, although the referee made some effort to level things up when showing a red card and three yellows to the home side in a game which was hard fought but never dirty.
Saltash had made a good start to the season, but had been on the wrong end of a hammering the previous week when fielding an under-strength team against St Ives. This week they were back to full strength, while Teignmouth had to re-shuffle because of the unavailability of key players, especially in the pack.
However, the Teigns exerted pressure on the Saltash defence from the first whistle, with the home side rarely getting out of their own half. The home defence stood firm throughout the onslaught, although they were forced to employ foul means as well as fair at times, which allowed the visitors’ fly half Will Luscombe to open up a 6-0 lead with two well-struck penalties in the 8th and 20th minutes.
Then came what could have been the turning point in a close match, with Sowden’s red card. After struggling to break down a stubborn defence with 15 men, Teignmouth re-grouped and scored their only try just 4 minutes after being reduced to 14. A well-worked passing move ended with forward Ben Parrett crossing in the corner; Luscombe failed to convert.
There was still time before the break for another potentially decisive moment in the game. Saltash finally started to make their numerical supremacy tell and right on half-time seemed to have converted their pressure into points with a well-worked try. However, what most of the spectators and the referee had missed was that the Saltash touch judge had several seconds earlier signalled that the ball had crossed his touchline in the build-up. As both teams prepared for Max Venables’s conversion attempt, the home official finally managed to attract the referee’s attention, and thanks to his sporting honesty the try was disallowed, and Teignmouth led 11-0 at the break.
At the beginning of the second half Saltash started to take advantage of their extra man as gaps started to appear in the Teignmouth midfield. However, the visitors always seemed to be able to make one last ditch tackle to keep their line intact. But as the pressure mounted, the Teignmouth defence started to creak and was forced to give away penalties of their own, and Venables made them pay with two kicks to put the home side in touch with 20 minutes to go.
Whenever Teignmouth managed an excursion into the Cornish half the home side started to find themselves offside, but unfortunately both Luscombe and Dan Force found their radar faulty and with eight minutes remaining the score remained 11-6 in the Teigns’ favour.
But then, despite some heroic defending, especially when down to 12 men with two players in the sin bin, the defence finally cracked as Hall forced his way over the line for a try which tied the scores.
With numbers evened up by the referee as Saltash players began to see red and yellow, Teignmouth showed just why they are early league leaders, and spent the last 5 minutes pounding the home defence. Saltash became more and more desperate, and for one final time went offside on the 22 metre line with 2 minutes left on the clock. Luscombe took his time and a few deep breaths before calmly slotting the winning penalty to the delight of Teignmouth’s management and supporters.
And so the Teigns have passed their first part of their October Test. An even sterner examination of their promotion credentials will follow this Saturday at Bitton Park, as the only other unbeaten club in the league, St Ives are the visitors. The management team will be hoping for all of the big guns to be available, and the players would greatly appreciate a large crowd to cheer them on. Kick-off is at 3pm.