Wessex 14 Teignmouth 49

Nearly two years ago coach Simon Morrell and his deputy Rick Orkney took over the reins at Bitton Park convinced that they could turn a team of relegation strugglers into promotion contenders, and that belief became reality on Saturday as Teignmouth steamrollered a spirited Wessex side in the mud at Flowerpot Field.
However, this victory was far from straightforward as the league leaders had to play three-quarters of the match a man short, and also lost scrum-half Neil Johns before half-time to injury.
The conditions were not ideal for running rugby, but Teignmouth’s success has been built on their formidable pack this season, and they once again revelled in the mud.
As usual the visitors were quickly into their stride, and Wessex soon began conceding penalties for offside, one of which Dan Force popped over. Then after only 8 minutes Will Sowden burst through some pretty poor efforts at tackling to score yet another try in what has been a prolific year for him.
It was slightly disappointing, given the proximity and the importance of this game, that so few Teigns supporters made the short trip to Exeter, but those who were there settled back to enjoy yet another big victory. In the end they got what they wanted, but only after a messy middle third of the game where the team made life difficult for themselves.
Firstly Arron Kelly got his marching orders after a clash of heads in which he was deemed to be the guilty party – his claim that the contact was unintentional fell on deaf ears, and some re-shuffling of the pack was necessary. Nevertheless, this Teignmouth side have become very good at reacting positively to adversity, and they certainly upped their game to score two tries before half time through Chris Tidman and Chris Sherlock, to leave the interval score 23-0.
But the loss of Johns led to yet more reorganisation as Force took over in the unfamiliar role of scrum half. The first 15 minutes of the second half saw the 14 men going in search of the all-important fourth, bonus-point try, but they seemed to be rushing things and were guilty of poor decision making.
Nevertheless, it was a real shock when a loose ball was hacked on by the Wessex forwards and Phil Entwhistle reacted more quickly than the Teigns’ defence to touch down near the posts, allowing Andy Alderman to convert.
As with the red card setback, this setback stung Teignmouth into action and the next 10 minutes saw them pile on the pressure to score 3 quick tries through Mike Saxton, Sherlock and Ben Parrett. With Force successfully converting two of them the game was as good as over with 15 minutes remaining.
However, there was still sufficient time for the home side to bag another try through Ben Dance which Alderman again converted, before the try of the match, if not the season, was scored by prop Paul Scott. The big man left the Wessex defence trailing in his wake as he ran in from 22 metres, dummying would-be tacklers on two occasions before touching down close enough to the posts to allow Force to complete the scoring.
The immediate post-match talk was of an excellent job done under difficult circumstances, and thoughts turned to sewing up promotion in the next home game against Crediton. But twenty minutes later in the pub the news came through Tiverton had unexpectedly been held to a draw by Withycombe, and so Teignmouth were mathematically sure of promotion. Morrell was naturally delighted at this news, but immediately stated that his target was now to beat St Ives to the league title. Teignmouth will need to win three of their last four matches to be crowned champions, the first of which is at home to Crediton on Saturday 23rd March.
This game will be preceded by the Annual Past Players Lunch, and hopefully this will help to swell the crowd and give the lads the support they deserve as they try to round off a brilliant season.