Honiton and OPM shared a rare low-scoring draw on an overcast day for rugby at the Allhallows, writes Justin Nuttall.

Honiton played up the slope and received the kick off, a good clearing kick saw play move to the OPM twenty two. The away side conceded a penalty for offside but an interception soon killed the Ton attack.

The first scrum of the game was a good one for OPM, pushing Honiton off the ball, only some solid defence stopped them scoring. Honiton conceded a penalty in front of their posts and OPM’s went unsurprisingly opted for a scrum, they moved forward but couldn’t control the ball and Honiton pinched it and cleared.

Honiton thought they had the first try of the game only for it to be ruled out for crossing. The first score finally did arrive from the home side wing James Goodman, who was on the end of a long pass to beat the last defender in the corner. Conversion missed, 5-0 ay half-time.

Honiton started the second half brightly and were unlucky not score in the first few minutes of the half but lost the ball near the line.

OPM’s were reduced to fourteen men with a yellow card for their number five who suffered the indignity of being flattened by Arthur Hatton and then given a yellow card for a no arms tackle.

OPM’s were getting worryingly close to the Honiton try line but a turnover by Phil Cook saw some much-needed relief. The score line was little reflection on the game a worry for the home side was that they could dominate the game to lose in a single score game.

With only a few minutes remaining, OPM’s got the try the home crowd had been dreading, scoring out wide tying the match at 5-5 with the conversion to come. Fortunately, the effort landed short and the score was five apiece.

Two phases later, the final whistle ended the match and Honiton can reflect on how they came to miss out on a win they probably deserved.