Teignmouth 2nd XV 7 Kingsbridge 5

Teignmouth 2s, who hadn't seen league action since their memorable win in Cullompton before Christmas, welcomed top of the table Kingsbridge to Bitton Park in what was anticipated to be a very difficult and challenging game for the Bitton Park Reserves.

Kingsbridge hadn't lost in 11 games and are sitting at the top of the league with promotion high on their agenda for the season. They arrived very early and looked every bit a quality outfit and early predictions were strongly in the favour of the visiting team. The Teignmouth back line was strengthened with the arrival of Ivan Pitman in the centre and the pack bolstered with Jake Allison starting at 7.

The game started well for Teignmouth with them taking the game to their bigger, more experienced opponents, and felt they ought to have been awarded a penalty try after a blatant collapsing of a rolling maul 2 metres from the opposition line. The first half was very much a see-saw affair with Teignmouth more than matching their top of the table opponents, but sloppy tackling saw the visitors score out wide to snatch a 5 nil half time lead.

Half time saw substitutes Phil Hann come on for the injured Ivan Pitman and Ben Yates replacing Danny Walters on the wing and the game livened up in the second half with Teignmouth crossing the white wash twice but failing to ground the ball. Some strong defence saw Teignmouth hold out the speedy Kingsbridge back line and some good tactical kicking by Callum Couch saw the Teigns have a line out just inside the Kingsbridge half. A well worked line out saw a beautiful dummy switch by Couch to send Roy Jones crashing through the defence, side stepping 2 defenders and going over just wide of the posts, the conversion was kicked by Couch and the game was 7-5 in the home side’s favour with 4 minutes to go. The Teigns tackled bravely and were awarded a scrum which resulted in the ball being won and put in to touch to signal the end of the game and a magnificent win for the home side

With 6 games in hand and being 6th in the table this season could well turn out to be one of the greatest in the history of the Bitton Park Reserves.