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Okehampton 25,

KINGSBRIDGE made it three away bonus-point victories in succession at Oke­hampton on Sat­urday.

They followed up a very strong first half performance with a resolute defensive second-half display after the home side had threatened a comeback.

The visitors opened the scoring in the fifth minute as strong early pressure from the Kingsbridge forwards saw play taken deep into the Okehampton 22.

With lock Jake Knight making a strong break for the line, the resulting ruck saw quick ball pumped out along the Kingsbridge backline for full-back George Banfield to sail over in the corner on the overlap for the first try.

That early lead was extended further five minutes later as further forward pressure saw number eight Jack Cope pick up from the base of a scrum in the Okehampton 22 and break for the line.

As he was brought down short, prop Mike Powell was on hand take the ball on and crash over. Centre Ash­ley Treeby added the conversion for a 0-12 lead.

The hosts briefly stemmed the tide with a penalty to reduce the deficit to 3-12 before Kingsbridge score their third try after only 18 minutes.

A break through the Okehampton backline from fly-half Ben New­man took play up to­wards the hosts' line and when he was stopped the ball was recycled quickly for Powell to be able to stroll over unchallenged for his second try.

Treeby converted and added a penalty four minutes later to see Kingsbridge stretch away to 3-22.

Okehampton were now stung into action and came back strongly into the Kingsbridge 22 immediately.

Kingsbridge were forced into a period of defence and the visitors gave away three quick penalties and were reduced to 14 men for ten minutes.

From the third penalty the hosts set up a rolling maul from the line out and burrowed their way over the Kingsbridge line for their first try of the game. The resulting conversion reduced the Kingsbridge lead to 10-22.

Back came Kings­bridge again to take play deep into the Oke­hampton half. A penalty given away by the hosts saw Kingsbridge put the ball into the corner for the line-out.

When the resulting maul was stopped just short of the line, scrum-half Tristan Couch spotted that the blind side was unguarded and scooted over into the corner for the bonus point try. Treeby added an excellent conversion to complete the first half scoring at 10-29.

The second half proved to be a different matter as Okehampton forced their way into the game from the word go.

They exploited an overlap as Kingsbridge were caught knapping in defence to reduce the lead to 15-29 and midway through the half they conceded a second try at the hands of the mazy running of the home full-back.

The conversion that followed reduced the deficit to just seven points at 22-29.

Kingsbridge pulled away again as Treeby slotted over a long-range penalty to take it to 22-32, before the hosts replied in kind to make it 25-32 with 10 minutes remaining on the clock.

When the hosts were penalised again, Treeby stepped up to add a third conversion to re-establish the 10-point lead at 25-35.

Kingsbridge withstood a late onslaught from the hosts that saw the visitors forced back into their 22.

However, when Oke­hampton were penal­ised for holding on, Kingsbridge were able to kick the ball dead to record a hard-fought victory. 

This Saturday sees Kingsbridge first XV return to action at High House with the visit of Tavistock.

Kick-off will be at 3pm and the match is preceded by the annual past players' lunch. The lunch will take place from noon and those past players interested in attending are advised to contact club president Jonathan Robinson or club secretary Martin Newman.

Unbeaten Kings­bridge A XV travel to face Tavistock seconds in the Devon Merit Table after last weekend's match was called off as Barnstaple thirds – the scheduled visitors to High House – cried off on Friday as they were unable to raise a team.

Kingsbridge Colts have no match on Saturday as they travel to face Chew Valley Old Boys Colts, near Bristol, in the second round of the National Colts Cup on Sunday.