On Sunday Honiton RFC under 14s made the short trip down to Exmouth for their first away match for some time.

Historically, Honiton have been the dominant squad for games against the seasiders but, for this encounter, the home side got out of the blocks with the more positive attitude and they scored an early unconverted try. With Honiton’s heads in the clouds, the Cockles scored another to go 10 points clear.

Honiton did rally and Richie Webber drove over the line for Honiton’s first points of the match. Honiton had a good passage of play, but they were always playing catch-up rugby and, to rub salt in the wound, Exmouth scored a third first half try which meant the Lacemen turned round 17-7 down with lots of work to do to get back into the game.

Words were said by the coaching staff at half time and Honiton took to the field with a more confident attitude and they did have the ball for long passages of play.

Webber capitalised on an error by the home side to get his second score and, with Harry Wright kicking the additional points, Honiton were back in it. However, just when things looked bright, a handling error allowed the Cockles’ winger to gather and run the ball back for what proved to be the decisive try.

Honiton dug deep and, with time ticking away, Webber rounded off his Man of the Match performance with his third dot down, but it was all too late and the home side won by 24-19, which was just a single try in the end.

Lesson learned for this week: “It’s a game of 60 minutes and you must be focused for all that time.”