Sat 25 Sep 2021
Tribute South West Premier
Okehampton 19 Weston-super-Mare 15
Weston travelled to Devon for a second successive weekend but could not repeat their victory at Brixham.
Things did not start well with full back George Chapman pulling up lame in the warm up resulting in new signing Josh Mynett being promoted to the bench making it front row heavy.
Combined to this Weston had to make nine changes from the original team selection due to both injuries unavailability and positional changes.
With all this in mind Weston won the toss and elected to play up the slope in the first half.
They were immediately pinned in their own half and instead of kicking for territory they elected to try and run their way up the field. Whilst being adventurous this approach did not work well as eventually the ball was turned over and Okehampton outside centre Brandon Horn was put away for a well taken try.
Fly half Dan Foggerty converting to put the hosts seven points up after only two minutes. Foggerty then missed a simple penalty chance before on the quarter hour the hosts increased their lead to twelve when the other centre Richard Bolt crossed when Weston ran out of men in defence.
Things did not look good but towards the end of the half Weston began to gain territory and were held up just short of the line following a forward rumble.
Further pressure on the stroke of half-time led to a penalty converted by centre Archie Tilsley.
Weston were incredibly fortunate to be only nine points in arrears at the break due to their naivety and poor decision making but at least their defence improved massively during the opening forty minutes.
With a stern talking to by head coach Darren Crompton at half time Weston were a different animal at the start of the second period.
Excellent defensive work by right wing Mike McCarthy led to a penalty. Weston fly half Ollie Walrond put in an excellent touch find and from the resulting line out a catch and drive put impressive hooker Gary Carpenter over for the visitors first try.
Tilsley missed the conversion but Weston had at last woken up. A tremendous break by Carpenter down the right hand touch line gave Weston renewed hope and with their tails finally up strong runs by the aforementioned hooker along with prop Charlie Kearns led to a penalty in front of the posts.
Instead of taking the easy three points on offer scrum half Jack Curtis took a quick tap and forced his way over to give Weston the lead for the first time. Tilsley kicked the extra points to take their lead to three points.
Weston looked to have salvaged an unlikely victory but when Kearns was left prostrate on the ground with blood gushing from a head injury caused by a stray elbow Weston momentarily stopped hoping for the game to be paused but however it continued and all the momentum they had gained was lost as renewed Okehampton vigour led to them bombarding the visitors line.
Weston infringed and were penalised with a penalty try which ultimately resulted in the victory.
Despite some good performances notably from Carpenter McCarthy and Curtis along with full back Harry Jones Weston did not play well.
Understandable perhaps due to the number of changes but the lack of game management in the first half along with the lack of penetration with increased possession in the second is definitely something to work on.
Weston did however come away with a losing bonus point. Another long trip beckons this Saturday with a visit to Camborne.
