Tribute South West One West

Ivybridge 33,

St Austell 22

Ivybridge have no game this weekend, so will be able to rest on their laurels after a fine performance earned them a bonus-point win over a strong and very physical St Austell side writes Tim Leigh.

First team coach Neil Thomson was very pleased with his side's performance, but less than happy with some of the aggression shown by St Austell's players when it became clear victory was be­yond them.

He said: 'I thought it was an excellent game.

'We tightened up our defence second half, didn't leave them any gaps, and our discipline was really good, the penalty count was very low.

'We're glad to do the double over them, they had a strong side out.'

Ivybridge started the game with a bang, fly-half Matt Grieveson scooting over before lock Dom Loomes surprised Austell with his pace to finish from 20 metres.

With neither try be­ing converted, Ivies nonetheless had a handy 10-0 lead.

Austell, though, showed impressive character to fight their way back into the contest, with a converted try and a penalty levelling the scores on the half hour.

Grieveson did push Ivy back ahead with a successful penalty, but with time running out in the first half Austell put together a nice move to score their second converted try and go in 13-17 up at the break.

With Thomson urging his side to seal up the gaps second half, Ivybridge came out firing and winger Max Snowden soon put them back into the lead following good work by Adam Bradley.

Next over for the increasingly authoritative Bridgers was lock Elliott Worrell, securing them the attacking bo­nus point, and when Billy Pinkus was on hand after a fine break by scrum-half Ben Watts, Ivybridge had a commanding lead 30-17.

Austell again res­ponded to score an unconverted try of their own and close to 30-22, but the gap was always too big and a Luke Martell penalty sealed the deal for Ivybridge.

Thomson is now looking to his side's run-in, and with just seven games to go of their first season in South West One, the main objective of a top-six finish is virtually guaranteed.

He said: 'Our objective now is just to keep on winning.

'We've got some tough away games coming up, we'll be looking for revenge over Thornbury after they beat us last year.

'We've only had one dip in form, last November, and we just want to keep on going. Our second team beat Brixham at the weekend, so there's players looking to come through into the first team, which is a great position to be in.'