Honiton 7, Wellington 27 Honiton Cots came off second best in their first meeting with the Somerset side for some years, writes Paz Parratt.

With Wellington being known as a no nonsense outfit along with having a big scoring reputation, the home side had it all to play for.

Honiton took the task at hand seriously and, from the off, looked controlled, comfortable and up to the challenge.

Playing up the slope in the first half the Lacemen looked bright in the opening exchanges, but it was the visitors who opened the scoring when they managed to break the home defence when a couple of missed tackles and a quick off-load let them run in the first of four similar first half tires.

Honiton attacked with some good forward work as they managed to work their way up the pitch into the opponents 22. It was from here that a tap and go penalty found Johny House cross the white wash with Jake Smith kicking the extras and that sent the sides into half-time with the visitors 22-7 up.

From the restart Honiton had the advantage of the slope and the point’s gap looked possible to reel back in on more than one occasion, but lack of support, good defence and first time tackles from Wellington kept the home side away from any further points.

Honiton however, played some useful rugby against a very well-organised squad who also had the luxury of fresh legs to field.

With a role-on-role-off substitution ploy, the visitors ensured they kept plenty of fresh legs in the action and that made it a continual up-hill battle for the Lacemen.

The second half produced just the one score, a fifth Wellington try.

The Honiton Man of the Match award went to Jake Smith who carried the ball well in contact and loose play.