Teignmouth 39 Withycombe 10

After a reasonably easy set of fixtures in September, top-of-the-table Teignmouth have had a far more testing time of it during October. First there was a tense three-point victory away to Saltash, and then last week a reality check against St Ives.
So a visit from bogey side Withycombe was always likely to examine the home side’s promotion credentials even further. Last season the Exmouth side’s two narrow victories could be seen to have been responsible for the Teigns’ failure to achieve promotion, so coach Simon Morrell and his team were well aware of the potential banana skin that awaited them.
Nevertheless, for the second week running Teignmouth got off to a flyer as winger Chris Tidman firstly finished off a period of sustained pressure, and then made an interception on the halfway line to score two tries in the first 7 minutes. Dan Force converted both.
But whereas St Ives had an impressive set of backs who were able to drag their side back into the game, Withycombe lacked that sort of class. They were well-able to put pressure on the Teigns’ powerful forwards, especially in the scrum, but never looked likely to threaten the hosts’ try line.
This was not the most entertaining of encounters, mainly because both sides’ physios were constantly being called on to tend to injuries. Nevertheless players and spectators alike were surprised when the referee found eleven minutes of injury time at the end of the half. During this time the visitors scored a penalty through Jack Pugsley, and Jamie Gray scored an unconverted try to give Teignmouth a 19-3 lead at the break.
Given the pressure which St Ives are likely to exert in latter stages of the season, every single point will be important, so the home side were delighted when, within 5 minutes of the restart, scrum-half Stef Walker sprinted through a gap in the visitors’ defence to score the fourth, bonus-point try. The lead was further extended when Will Luscombe took over the kicking duties with a penalty two minutes later.
Many thought that the game was then over as a contest, but the Withys are nobody’s whipping boys, and on the hour their No. 8 Neil Williams finished off a period of sustained pressure with a try which Pugsley converted. Things could have got much more tense for the Teigns but for a last ditch tackle from replacement Shaun Lovett a few minutes later, as Withycombe sensed a way back into the game.
It soon became clear that the referee had again managed to find a large amount of injury time, but Teignmouth have on several occasions this season been proved to have superior fitness in the closing stages of matches, and the result was that regular try-scorers Colin Aldworth and Will Sowden were able to give the final scoreboard a slightly misleading look.
At the end of the match Morrell explained that, in a hard-fought match like this, the result is more important than the performance. Picking out the handling and decision-making errors which interrupted the fluency of his team’s performance, he said, “We know where we need to improve, and will be working hard at training this week to make sure that we do!”
The Teigns will certainly need to be near their best again this weekend as they head off to fifth-placed Tiverton on Saturday for yet another match against promotion contenders.