Plymstock Albion Oaks 2's Vs Salcombe

A bad day at the office best describes Salcombe's match on Saturday against a strong Plymstock side. 

The omens didn't look good to team manager Tom Woods the previous Monday as he contemplated the list of injuries and non availability for this game. Even your regular correspondent was sidelined by a family event he had been warned not to miss! But by dint of charm and arm twisting Tom managed to dig out 3 players from retirement and so arrived at Plymstock with 17 players. Grateful thanks go to Matt Hurst, Chris Drew, who played the whole match, and Sam Viles all of whom made a significant contribution.

The Crabs got off to a bad start by making a mess of receiving the kick off which gave the home side a position in Salcombe's 22. A few short exchanges later an absence of tackling saw Plymstock score wide out for an unconverted try. The Crabs then had their best period of play dominating the home side putting together some neat touches which should have resulted in scores but for dropped passes and needless penalties. Eventually however they were rewarded when following lineout possession good handling by the backs and a clever grubber kick from Eoghan Grace enabled the ever combatant Liam Wills to outpace the defence for the touchdown. Lee Clark put over a difficult conversion to give Salcombe a 7-5 lead at half time. 

The second half is best glossed over from a Salcombe point of view. Whether playing up the very slight slope and into the gentle breeze had anything to do with it I don't know but Plymstock scored four more tries and converted one of the stream of penalties Salcombe conceded. It is often tempting when playing in Plymouth to feel that referees can be harsh. But this fit young guy wasn't in that category and the penalty count just grew and grew. This coupled with all sorts of mistakes, wrong options and visibly tiring legs gave us all a match to forget. And it could have been so different if Salcombe had played all afternoon in the same way they briefly did when Salcombe, already 22-7 down, executed a lovely backs move to give Wills his second try. But the game ended up with a 34-12 defeat for the Crabs and so we move on. There is no match this week but Salcombe are at home on 17th February to Old Technicians ko 2.30

By John Sprague