The Devon senior cup final and the last game of the season and a last chance to add another title for the season.
The general expectation by those who knew a thing or two about rugby was that we would be playing Brixham who ended in fourth place in the league.
What did they know? Brixham had to play Exmouth who ended in sixth place, over the two legs Exmouth came out on top by three points, I think.
So there it was, we had to play Exmouth. There was no real feeling that that would be the easier draw because they were lower in the league as Exmouth were clearly having a good run, and by reputation had an extremely strong pack.
They arrived clearly up for it and determined to take the game to us and were not going to allow our league position to worry them.

On a beautiful sunny day, for a change, we started off playing towards the school end. The first sixteen minutes were very even with Exmouth looking sharp and running hard into our defence who had to work hard to keep them out, we in turn ran at them and they had to defend well.
The stalemate was broken on sixteen minutes when we opened the scoring, we won a penalty, went for a lineout, attacked half a dozen times then sent it to the backs, Harrison Coonick took it on before being stopped, as he went down he was able to pop the pass up to George Pooley supporting on the inside, he was moving at speed, three defenders, first James Clarke and Nick Headley tried to stop him but could not get a good grip on him, then a couple of feet short of the line full-back Jake Inglis tried but it was too late the pair went over the line for George to touch down. Richard Goldsby-West had a simple conversion. 7~0.

Right from the restart Exmouth got down to near our line and then sent the ball to the backs, a long final pass found the left winger James Clarke in space and he was able to sprint in, a defender caught him but his speed took him and the defender over the line to score at the entrance corner. The conversion was missed. 7~5.
As the half went on Exmouth's George Meadows added a penalty and with it the lead to make it 7~8.
By this time we had lost Matt Neyle and Harrison Coonick to injury.

Near the half-hour Exmouth then pulled further ahead, we were attacking in their twenty-two when prop Olli Dawe picked up a dropped ball on the right side and sprinted most of the length of the pitch to score under the crossbar. “ He must be the fastest prop ever,” said someone in the crowd as he touched down. The conversion went over.
They pulled ahead further to 7~15.
We now had to work hard to pull them back otherwise they might have pulled further away and made it difficult for us to catch them.
On thirty-two minutes they very nearly did just that, they got to our line and ran at it a couple of times, we defended our line well. The referee was playing advantage and took them back to the turnstile side, they opted for a tap penalty but messed it up. We took a five-yard scrum, they pushed us back badly but one of their flankers unbound himself early and we were able to kick clear.
A little while after that and Richard Goldsby-West kicked a simple penalty to close the gap to 10~15.
Right on the halftime whistle, they won a penalty, and went for a close-in lineout but slightly overthrew it, our rear man caught it and we were able to kick clear to make it 10~15 at the break.

Their pack was just on top pushing us back, once seriously, their lineout was working well ours was not up its usual standard, but OK.
The game was finely balanced when we restarted. They kicked off to us and we were playing towards the turnstile end.
At one point Exmouth kicked long from their twenty-two, a tight to the sidelines kick, the ball bounced well into our twenty-two near the touchline, one of our players must have tried to catch it but knocked it into touch, from the lineout they mauled it on and crabbed towards the post and were looking dangerous, fortunately one of our forwards was able to rip the ball away and we kicked clear.
Exmouth then had Dave Bargent yellow carded in the build up to our next try.
On twenty-three minutes we were attacking from a close lineout and sent the ball down the line, it got to Dylan Daley on the left wing who went for the line, fifteen feet short he realised he was going to be tackled, drew the defender then slipped to the ball to Toby Knowles inside him who had an easy run and dive in to score.
The conversion was missed. 15~15.
We had two try chances ruled out, one from Toby Knowles for crossing and one for Dylan Daley when the referee said he knocked on grounding the ball.
We slowly got on top of their scrum in this half, then as full-time approached on the stand side they had a scrum but our pack completely destroyed them pushing them back a long way to win a penalty.
Into injury time we got a penalty, went for a five-yard lineout, won it and easily drove over the line in the turnstile corner for Mike Rickard to score. Richard Goldsby-West kicked a fine sideline conversion. The home players and supporters went wild thinking that was it, time up and we had won at the death. 22~15.
The home supporters were soon silenced when Richard Goldsby-West picked up a red card for a high tackle, the home supporters near the moment thought a yellow card would have been enough punishment.
Exmouth, in one last push, got to our line and Jake Inglis was able to force his way over from a tap penalty about halfway out from the posts, 22~20, all depended on the not too difficult conversion. George Meadow's conversion went cleanly over dead in the middle and the scores were level at 22~22.

After a short break, we started two periods of ten minutes extra time.

After four minutes and playing with a man down we won a lineout on the club side just in their half, the forwards drove well up to their twenty-two, Kyle Felton broke free with the ball when it stopped, a couple of defenders tried to tackle him but he slipped between them, with his moment of glory in sight he was not going to be stopped, Nick Headley the No 13 did get hold of him but only seven feet out it was too late and the pair tumbled over the line, and, as they say, ‘The crowd went wild’
Mike Rickard attempted the conversion but it missed.
We played out the rest of the ten minutes and then the final ten having to defend the game which we did superbly well and you would not have known we were a man down.

The second ten minute period started. The game went this way and that, on a hot afternoon legs were beginning to wobble.
Then close to the end, the excitement was intense for both teams and their supporters,
Only five points in it, and Exmouth only needed a converted try to win, we had to defend hard because they threw everything they had at us.
If I remember rightly, I forgot to record the moment in that excitement, in about the fifth minute of injury time Exmouth again got to our line near the posts and very nearly scored but something went wrong a couple of feet out and we were able to kick clear for full time.
The whole last fifteen minutes was a bit of a blur of excitement for both sides, I hope I have got the events in those minutes in the right order.

In any event, the final whistle went, and a few of our players threw their arms in the air and cheered but I think most, on both sides, were just glad it was over.
Supporters of both teams flowed onto the pitch to congratulate or commiserate.
An exciting but tough end to a memorable season.
Thanks to Sam Mullan, Phoebe Jeffery, Ellie Murphy, Zelah Morgan and Emily Olden for the medical cover.
Thanks too to the U11s under coach Sam Samuels for rushing about collecting the balls as needed and returning them.

After the clapping off and so on, everyone gathered around a table with the cups on, Devon President Paul Harris and Devon’s long term secretary, Treve Mitchell were there to present the cup and plate and lastly the League winners plaque.
Chris Forster, the Devon Cup secretary gave a speech, as a Brixham man he was clearly disappointed that they were not there in the final and said so.
The plate was presented to Exmouth captain Dave Bargent by Paul Harris and then we were presented with the cup, I can’t remember if Shaun Crawford or Matt Gregory collected it, it was that sort of moment, a bit of a blur of noise and photographs.
We were also presented with the League winners plaque.
Then the team gathered with the cup, Champagne corks were popped, beer cans were shaken up and it went everywhere to the cheers and grins all around from the players and supporters, red and blue smoke fireworks went off and phones and cameras took hundreds of photos of the moment.

Spare a thought for the Exmouth players, they gave it their all and came close to winning a couple of times, but as Ben Russell the victorious coach had said,
“ I think the team that defends better will win the game” and we certainly had to defend well particularly at the end.
Our man of the match was Aiden Taylor a tankard was presented to him by Ian Harris the Exmouth Chairman, the Exmouth man of the match was the 'fastest prop in the west' Olli Dawe.

The Team.
1. Rikki Bentham.
2. Aiden Taylor.
3. Oli Symons.
4. Mark Friend.
5. Mike Rickard.
6. Liam Jarvis.
7. James Hocking.
8. Matt Gregory. (CC).
9. Dan Goldstone.
10. Richard Goldsby-West.
11. Harrison Coonick.
12. Shaun Crawford. (CC).
13. George Pooley.
14. Tom Davies.
15. Matt Nyle.
16. James McFarlane.
17. Yianni Costas.
18. Kyle Felton.
19. Tyler Busfield.
20. Dylan Daley.
21. Toby Knowles.
Physio cover.
Sam Mullan,
Phoebe Jeffery,
Ellie Murphy,
Zelah Morgan,
Emily Olden.
Head coach.
Ben Russell.
Assistant coach
Rikki Bentham.

Exmouth.
1. Oli Dawe.
2. Charlie Gibbings.
3. Tommy Andrews.
4. Steve Pape.
5. Jack Fahy.
6. Oli Mason.
7. Toby Papp.
8. Ben Hawley.
9. Charlie Passmore.
10. George Meadows.
11. James Clarke.
12. Dave Bargent (C).
13. Nick Headley.
14. Matt Ryan.
15. Jake Inglis.
16. Brad Skinner.
17. Will Ridout.
18. Oli Turner.
19. Liam Bayley.
20. Lee Loverage.
21. Oli Cave.
22. Gareth Roebuck.
23. Adam Watts.
Head Coach.
Steve Perry.

Match officials.
Referee. James Milliner-Woodcock.
Linesmen. Ian Pengelly, Ryan Yeoman.
No4. Dan Gorfin.
Advisor. Ron Smeardon.

Match announcer.
Lt Fraser Pearson RN.