Regional 1 South West
Devonport Services 24 Weston super Mare 22

Report by Chris Heath

In sunny but chilly conditions in Plymouth, Weston-super-Mare had the better of the opening shots, with a sniping break by scrum-half Jack Press particularly catching the eye and although it didn't amount to anything.

In the fifth minute, Weston capitalised on their superiority when centre James Mackay started and finished a sweeping move to cross in the left-hand corner, but his conversion attempt hit the upright.

But as so often happens this season, Weston totally missed the restart due to the sun, and the momentum shift was noticeable. For the first time, Devonport were in the Weston half, and it didn't take long for them to equalise.

A sweeping move saw their right-wing, Matthew Richards, cross wide on the right. The visitors hit back almost immediately when Mackay kicked to the corner after gaining a penalty from a dominant scrum.

From the resulting throw, hooker Gary Carpenter, who had a fine game, dabbed down after the catch and drive. Mackay completed the extras to put Weston seven points to the good.

But as if it was written in the stars, the restart was once again a mess, and the hosts earned a soft penalty which they chose to go for the uprights and full back Kieran Down reduced the deficit to four points.

Weston again continued to press with lock Andrew Glen making several runs to put Devonport on the back foot. From one of these, Weston opened up, and right-wing Kyran Devitt was taken into touch close to the line.

However, it was the home side who nudged in front with another sweeping move with some excellent draw and gives to put them a point up with a try from Down, but he was off target with his conversion attempt.

Weston had a chance to retake the lead on the stroke of half time when a similar draw and give may well have put Devitt over after a long-range passage of play, but it was the home side who led 13-12 at the break.

The second half began with yet another comedy of errors ending with the Services increasing their lead by hacking the ball through after Weston's reluctance to dive on loose balls, and No.8 Mike Rickard scored for the hosts.

There then followed a litany of soft penalties whilst on the front foot, and the hosts finally found themselves in a position to add three points through a Down penalty following yet another of these all-too-frequent misdemeanours.

In the fifty-fourth minute, Weston replaced fly-half Joe Thomas with Jake Knight, who went on at outside centre, with Mackay relocating to his usual position of fly-half.
Weston looked more cohesive now, but Mackay, unfortunately, received a yellow card for an undisclosed offence when stopping another possible try for Devonport.

They again elected for a Down penalty to put them 12 points up with a quarter of an hour remaining. Weston weren't finished, and even with their talisman in the bin, Weston hit back with the hosts' flanker Liam Jarvis in the sin-bin.

Weston's dominant pack battered the hosts' line, and it was fitting that the scrum's cornerstone Oliver Streeter was the one to add the final touch. Devitt, called upon due to Mackay's absence, skewed his conversion attempt wide.

With Weston now making another two replacements, with Billy Kirk joining the fray for the hard-working Glen and Martin Hakunavanhu on for the try-scoring Streeter, the visitors had one more throw of the dice.

Kirk immediately won a few penalties on the trot with his expertise over the ball and with Hakunavanhu putting an amazing hit on Devonport's Richard Goldsby-West, forcing the fly-half to spill the ball.

This resulted in the now returned Mackay feeding full-back Harry Butland who in turn put right-wing Huw Morgan away to cut the deficit to two points, but Mackay's difficult conversion drifted wide to leave Weston crestfallen.

The Weston pack was once again dominant, but again impatience cost them at different times. Old warhorses Glen and Ash Russell put in a great shift and deserved to be on a winning team, along with the highly impressive Carpenter.

Mackay once again provided class, which was encouraging, yet at the same time disappointing performance, but the two bonus points take Weston up to eighth in the table and four points above the relegation zone.

The Seasiders know that they are in a dogfight but if and it's a big if they can cut down on their carelessness and soft penalties, their genuinely improving performances should see them climb the table.

They have two challenging home games ahead of them, with league leaders Camborne the visitors on Saturday, followed a week later by second-placed Chew Valley. Both games kick off at 2.30 pm.

Devonport Services scorers – tries: Matthew Richards, Kieran Down, Mike Rickard; pens: Kieran Down (3)
Weston-super-Mare scorers – tries: James Mackay, Gary Carpenter, Oli Streeter, Huw Morgan; con: James Mackay.