Tribute Western Counties West

Devonport Services 13

Ivybridge coach Neil Thomson was looking forward to travelling to bottom-of-the-league Honiton tomorrow after racking up a bonus-point win against Devonport Services last weekend.

Despite that excellent result aand Honiton'ss lowly standing, he was warning it would not be an easy game.

He said: 'Honiton may be bottom of the league, but they've won their last two games and they turned over Torquay last time out. They surprised Torquay a little bit maybe at the start, so we'll really have to be up for it in the first twenty.'

In terms of starting fast, anything like the start Ivybridge got off to last Saturday against Services would certainly fit the bill.

Two tries from George DeMendonca inside the first fifteen minutes, both converted by Adam Bradley, gave Ivy a 14-0 lead and very much laid the platform for what was to come.

Thomson, interestingly, thought that a slightly tweaked pre-match routine helped his still very young squad get in the right mindset for the kick-off and thus enabled them to get off to this most rapid of starts.

He said: 'We came out with a different attitude, our mental preparation was spot on.

'We'd noticed that we seem to be better prepared away from home for the start of matches, so we isolated the boys from everything else, warmed up early then shut the changing room door to ensure we were fully focused.'

It is worth bearing in mind that this is a team featuring a whole host of teenagers in its ranks, including the man-of-the-match George DeMendonca, who was playing only his second first team match since returning from his dislocated shoulder suffered earlier in the season.

As such, Thomson felt it had been perhaps too easy for the players to become distracted from the task at hand in home fixtures.

With the side suffering five defeats on the bounce, Ivybridge were moving perilously close to a relegation battle, so this change of tactics appears to have been both necessary and effective.

Despite the defeats, Thomson has no fault with the players for lack of enthusiasm or enjoyment in what they do.

He speaks glowingly of having 25-30 lads turn up to training sessions, and has repeatedly emphasised this season how the group is still a work in progress, but one with vast potential.

The fact that star player George DeMendonca was substituted early so he could be well rested for the forthcoming National Colts Cup fifth round match against Tring this Sunday illustrates the youthful nature of this squad.

Speaking about DeMendonca, Thomson was effusive in is praise of the 18-year-old, saying: 'George has got three tries since he came back, but he's not just a finisher, he also went across the whole width of the field to make a try-saving tackle for us, and that's exactly what we want as coaches.'

Devonport came back into it after this, with an unconverted try and a penalty meaning the difference was less than a score, 14-8, at half-time.

With the players reinvigorated and focused in what they had to do in the second half, Ivybridge came out firing once again, with Bradley nailing a 35-metre penalty minutes in for 17-8.

Olympic torchbearer and cancer survivor Jordan Anderton, himself still in his teens, was brought on at inside centre midway through the second half.

It was his cute chip over the top that was followed up by full-back Tom Scoles, an old head at 21, for Ivybridge's third try of the day on 65 minutes.

The bonus point was secured Dan Burnard, who was on hand after lock Mike Cox rumbled upfield, with replacement kicker Grieveson, on for Bradley, knocking over the extras.

Grieveson extended a rampant Ivybridge's lead still further with another penalty to make the score 32-8.

With ten minutes left, George DeMendonca scored his much-deserved hat-trick try, again converted by Grieveson, to cap off a brilliant performance by both him and the team.

Devonport did get what Thomson described as a deserved consolation score at the death, but the result well and truly belonged to Ivybridge.

Thomson also made special mention of the young referee, Kris Connabeer, who he said produced an excellent display.