Okes felled by the Foresters!

Okehampton R.F.C. 27pts
Drybrook R.F.C. 36pts

Missing a few regulars Drybrook made a scrappy start to the game and conceded a soft try after seven minutes when the home team drove over from close range.
Drybrook continued to give the ball up at crucial moments and were forced to rely on the good defensive work of Danny Price and Bailey Watts to keep the home team at bay.
Drybrook needed something to kick-start their mo-jo and this was provided by Joe Tingle, who, despite a rather late night and missing the bus was still on top form. He made a great break from inside his own half up to the Okehampton twenty-two metre line, where he offloaded to hooker Callan Williams who raced in to open the Drybrook account. Tom Treherne converted and Drybrook held a two -point advantage with twenty-four minutes gone.
Drybrook were now starting to put phases together and continued pressure led to a try for Ryan Chapel–Thomas with the conversion by Treherne.
Okehampton were struggling to contain the Drybrook momentum and were dealt a further blow when they lost a player to the sin-bin for a high tackle on thirty-seven minutes. Treherne converted the resulting penalty and then a fine move in the backs led to a try for robust flanker Bailey Watts, again converted by Treherne to give the away team a healthy twenty-four points to five lead at the break.

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Okehampton kicked off the second half and to their credit forced their way back into the game with two well taken trys, on seven and eleven minutes, one of these was converted to give the home support and the team the belief that they could turn the game around with the score at twenty- four points to seventeen.
Touch-line advise from coach Chris Fortey was well heeded and the Drybrook boys rallied to again take some control of the game. Their scrum had been impressive all afternoon and Harry Daynes enjoying a fine game earned the away team a scrum penalty on fifteen minutes. Treherne’s attempt drifted wide but Drybrook were soon back on the offensive and gained the bonus-point when Captain Ben Large showed his class to cross for a well taken try.
Typical of the way the afternoon was going Drybrook were again sloppy at the restart and gave away a penalty for holding on at the break-down. Oke’s kicked to the corner and then executed a good catch and drive to score a try bringing the score back to within seven points with five minutes left on the clock.
With the sniff of an upset on the cards Okehampton ran the ball back at Drybrook from the restart, however, an over-speculative pass was intercepted by Ryan Chapel-Thomas on his own twenty-two, he raced away to go under the home teams posts and bag his second try of the game. Treherne slotted the conversion and

It was the home team though who were to have the final say in the game. With time running out they scored in the corner to give themselves a chance of coming back to within seven points and earn two points from the game. It was not to be however as Drybrook earned a penalty from the restart and kicked the ball off the pitch to record a hard earned five-point bonus win thirty-six points to twenty-seven.
This wasn’t Drybrook’s most fluent game but they deserved the victory over a plucky home team who never stopped believing they could get something from their afternoon’s endeavours.
Drybrook were well served by Tingle, Daynes and Watts in the pack and solid performances out behind from Large, Price and the Welsh Wizard Chapel-Thomas.
Drybrook will be looking to cement their league place when they take on Launceston next week in their last home league fixture of the season.

Drive on Dry!

Drybrook – T Treherne, L Roberts, D Price, B Large(Capt), R Capel-Thomas, D Worseley, C Colombo, M Bourne, S Peaper, B Watts, J Tingle, J Taylor, H Daynes, C Williams, D Jelf, B Stretch, F Bourne, M Hale.