Drybrook 54pts
Teignmouth 0pts
With the sun struggling to make an appearance and a chill wind descending down the slope from Harrow Hill and across the Mannings, a large crowd had gathered to see if the long Christmas break would have any part to play in Drybrook’s ambitions on keeping within touching distance of league leaders Exeter University.
After five minutes of play and fourteen points on the board it was plain to see that normal service had been resumed. If there were any concerns about how their team would begin the New Year they were soon to be put to bed with a blistering start that saw first the powerful Beatie cross the line then a superlative attack that ended with Baldwin going over close to the posts. Treherne showed that the turkey and wine had in no way affected his accuracy by converting both scores.
If the attack was mesmerising then the defence was miserly. Teignmouth, to their credit, did come back at the home team but were met by a ferocious rear-guard action that time and again saw them repelled. The only blip was a sin binning for Howells after he had no choice but to stray offside to stop a certain Teignmouth score.
Drybrook’s forwards were offloading in the tackle and with Stevenson in commanding form at outside half, Large and Price were given ample opportunity to launch wave upon wave of attack through the centre of the Teignmouth defence.
On twenty five minutes, Ben George added to the points tally after receiving the ball from the ever threatening Baldwin. It was not long after that,
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the arch poacher Peaper was on hand to finish off another sweeping attack and seal the bonus point before the break. With Trusty Treherne slotting another conversion Drybrook were sitting pretty at half time with twenty six points already in the bag.
The second half kicked off with Drybrook having the advantage of the chill breeze at their backs and they continued to bamboozle the opposition with forwards looping round to receive the offload and backs combining to make inroads into the Devonians half of the pitch.
To be fair to Teignmouth they were proving more resolute and it took quarter of an hour before Maestro Stevenson sold the trademark dummy to sail in after another siege on the opposition’s line. Treherne converted and took the score to thirty three points to nil.
The Drybrook pack were now in complete control. The power of Beatie, and Boon, the prowess of Tingle, Greenway and Peaper, added to the work rate of Nott and Howells, plus the control of Renton, meant that the tiring Teigns had no answer to the onslaught of the home eight.
As the game reached its final quarter it was no surprise that the beleaguered Teignmouth defence began to leak more and more missed tackles. On seventy minutes Beatie again showed his ability to crash over for his second score of the game.
From the restart Drybrook produced a sublime
passage of play, combining forwards and backs to produce the try of the game which was scored by Mitch Baldwin.
Five minutes later Tingle capped another stand out performance when he was on hand to add the final try of the afternoon following another powerful surge from the Drybrook pack.
Treherne was once again on target, completing another successful afternoon only missing one kick in an otherwise faultless display.
The whistle was blown to end the first game of this year’s campaign and Drybrook were celebrating a fifty four point victory.
If you were to be critical you could only say that the home team were not always clinical in the final third of the field, but this would be just nit picking at an altogether fine display by the men in green.
As pleasing as the attack was, it was the ferocity in defence that saw the team from Devon having to make the long journey home with nothing to show for their efforts.
Next week, Drybrook will be on the road when they travel to the delightful seaside town of Bideford, to take on a team who will be looking to overturn the humiliation they suffered in the hundred point defeat in the Forest earlier this season.
Drybrook 1st XV T. Treherne, H .Howard, D. Price, B. Large, M. Baldwin, L. Boon, A. Howells, E.Beatie, W. Greenway, G. Nott, S. Peaper, J.Tingle, M. Renton
Replacements L. Mullane, C. Guest, D.Jelf.
