Tribute Devon One

South Molton 28

Salcombe generally worked hard against a powerful South Molton side, but poor tackling let in two soft tries.

It also usually took two or three Salcombe players to bring down some of the big visiting forwards, so that the home cover was stretched all the time and possession in the loose was limited.

This was a pity, because the Salcombe backs looked good in attack and indeed both Salcombe tries were scored as a result of their fine handling.

The game was scoreless for much of the first quarter, although the visitors clearly had the edge in terms of territory and ball and two quick penalties saw them 6-0 ahead after 20 minutes.

The game then became more even, with the Crabs showing some nice touches, often orchestrated by Jon Squire playing at 10 in place of Chris Drew, who was reluctantly on wedding duty.

However more or less on the stroke of half-time, Molton put together a neat move from a set scrum, which allowed their wing to cross over for a converted try to make the half-time score 13-0 to the visitors.

The start of the second half saw Salcombe in the ascendancy, with Mark Parnowski just beaten to the touch down from a kick ahead.

This was quickly followed by some smooth handling in the backs, with James Palmer at flanker providing the final link to Darren Hopkins, who with 40 yards to go burned off the opposition for a try wide out.

Lee Clarke converted well to bring the scoreline back to 7-13 to Molton.

Poor tackling let Molton go over again for an unconverted try before Salcombe got their second of the match.

Parnowski, always lively on the wing, gathered a skewed Molton kick and from the ensuing ruck the ball came swiftly via Squire to Rupert Bevan at centre.

Bevan then put in a great solo effort, running through tackles and hitting gaps to go over wide out. The conversion failed but the score was 12-18 to the visitors.

However as Salcombe tired Molton got two more tries to give them the bonus point and to notch up the final score.

Next week Salcombe have nothing in their fixture list at the moment, but will hope to pick up a game to give everyone some much-needed game time.