Honiton 2nds 10, Teignmouth 2nds 14 Honiton 2nds suffered a narrow defeat on a warm Allhallows day, writes Tom Churchward.

Disappointingly, for the second time this season, Teignmouth failed to turn up with a scrum, so the game went uncontested from the start, taking an advantage away from the Lacemen. Playing up the slope, the game kicked off and both sides showed their intent to play attacking rugby. Honiton had most of the possession, but a good break from the Teign’s and some poor tackling from the Lacemen saw them cross over for their first converted try. Honiton regrouped and found themselves in the visitors-22. With the forwards carrying well an overlap developed and the backs used good hands to allow fullback Josh Ledger to cross for an unconverted try. Honiton’s discipline started to let them down a bit and they soon had Martin Summers in the bin for a breakdown offence. Teignmouth took advantage of this and again slipped through some weak tackling to cross over. Just before the stroke of half time Honiton had a chance to add three points, but the penalty attempt went wide leaving it 14-5 at the break.

After the break Honiton played some good rugby, but were struggling to cross over the white line. Whilst the contest was good, the discipline was not! The visitors found themselves down to 14 and the Lacemen took advantage of this and Matt Bailey showed good pace to run in from the half-way line for an unconverted try.

With 10 minutes left Honiton pushed for the winning try and were aided by some further ill-discipline by Teignmouth who were reduced to 13!

Honiton ran several penalties with the impressive Justin Nuttall carrying well. Frustratingly, the option to scrum at these penalties, which was one that would have been chosen, was taken out of the equation and Honiton were unavailable to cross the line before the final whistle blew. This was an entertaining game with the Lacemen losing put in a game they really could have won, but the effort put in couldn’t be faulted.