This week’s side featured five changes. Josh Luxon was at eleven for the injured Dave Harris, captain Sean Mardell who was worried he might not make the side after last week’s fine performance, came back at eight in place of absent Josh Mammola, Jacob Broom was forward replacement for injured Ollie Schuster-Wood, debutante Ted Niblett, brother of Henry, was on the bench for Paul Baker as a back and in place of George Woofenden, was the prodigal Dan Reed, returned from Tiverton as front row replacement, a selection that gave team manager Steve Luxon great personal pleasure and a welcome back to a former long standing club member.

Drybrook soon showed why they, with the university, were one of the breakaway pair at the top of the league. Their flyhalf, Tim Stevenson was remarkable for his size and reminiscent of Devonport’s Matt Anstis although of a slightly younger vintage. Like Anstis he was mobile, skilful and pulled all the strings in a side that contained front row ball carriers Mitch Hale at one, Mitch Renton at three, Joe Tingle at eight, rapier quick Sam Peaper on the open side, pacy right wing Ollie Moore and full back Tom Treherne who kicked every bit as well as Cully’s Adam Pearce. The side were disciplined and seemed to specialise in turning over the ball at breakdowns. They hit hard in pairs and the support was straight in trying to rip the ball reported home full back Marcus Busch after the game.

As has been the case all season Cullompton was in charge at the scrum and although confined to their own half for almost all the first thirty six minutes, had regular bits of possession to relieve pressure on their line. After conceding a soft try to Peaper in the first five minutes, the Cully defence had resisted well and only given away a penalty whilst Busch was in the bin and a try behind a lineout drive near the break for 0-17. Meanwhile the temperature on the sidelines was rising. Luxon and coach Harry Williams who had made the effort to return from Exeter’s game in Manchester in time for the Cully kick off, were of the joint opinion that their side was overawed by the opposition. Defeatism was not tolerated in Britain in WW2 and they would not tolerate it at Stafford Park now.

It was as if mental telepathy was at work as Cully suddenly changed gear and blitzed the Drybrook twenty two for the last five minutes of the half scoring a converted try just before the whistle but it did not save the lads from the chastening words of both Luxon and unusually Williams during the break. The Cully boys took the field for the second half and were to demonstrate the powerful effect of mental resolve in the game of rugby. Although shipping another unconverted score, again behind a lineout drive Cully then stood firm for twelve minutes against Drybrook’s best efforts to get their customary try bonus score and ended the game bringing pressure to bear on the visitors with debutante Ted Niblett touching down the try converted by Pearce for a 14-22 loss in the match but a 7-5 win in the half.

The game started with an early Drybrook try which came from a ball dropped at a Cully lineout. Drybrook eventually managed to get their ball from a scrum that was reversing rapidly and deadly winger Moore was brought to ground on the Cully five by Busch’s last ditch tackle. Busch was deemed not to have released his man and visiting flanker Sam Peaper darted over the line after a number of phases from the penalty lineout had been conducted along the Cully five. Treherne converted for 0-7.

Drybrook players often went in to contact very low which caught out Cully on a couple of occasions. At the close of the first quarter Busch went into the tackle and claimed his opponent had ducked down at the last moment. The tackle was judged to be high and Busch saw yellow. Early in the second half lock Henry Niblett wishing to avoid a similar fate went very low to match a Drybrook ball carrier and in the resulting clash of heads which occurred less than three feet above the ground, was knocked out and sustained a concussion. During Busch’s absence Cully was caught offside and Treherne struck a penalty well to make the score 0-10

On the half hour after Cully had given away a lineout on half way with a sliced grubber kick, Drybrook collected a penalty advantage in the subsequent maul which was realised when Luxon caught a speculative cross field kick and called the mark. The penalty lineout in the Cully twenty two was taken down into a maul which was held up in goal. In the resulting Drybrook five metre scrum the visitors gave a massive premature push just after the referee Stuart Read had signalled the put in. The result was a scrum reset leaving Cully supporters with the feeling that instead of a free kick for Cully it was a free shove for Drybrook. The reset was pushed back well but Cully were soon deemed off side and the visitors next maul from the penalty five metre lineout made it over the line for a try for hooker Ashley Howells and a conversion for Treherne

With four minutes to half time Cully was awarded a penalty which gave them a penalty lineout just outside the opposition twenty two. Another Drybrook infringement was quickly tapped by scrum half Tom Frankpitt who employed his ten metres of immunity to dart past half a dozen big defenders and get Cully to the Drybrook five for the first time in the game. He laid back the ball which was recycled through Busch and number eight Sean Mardell and back to himself again. The ball was knocked back from his grasp but lock Simon Kittow was on hand to catch it and took it in by the post. After several attempts at the grounding flanker Ollie Reed was successful with a pick and go to the base of the post. Pearce converted for 7-17

The second half saw a bit more Cully possession and a six minute period in opposition territory at the end of the third quarter but two successive penalties gave Drybrook a platform for strong ball carriers Mitch Hale and Mitch Renton to make good ground and it was Hale who scored an unconverted try at the back of a maul for 7-22. After fifteen minutes of heroic defence Cully won a scrum on their own ten and taking advantage of the the pressure Drybrook forwards were under Mardell scampered off and won a penalty when he was not released after the tackle. Play was so intense that when a bout of fisticuffs involving six players broke out behind the referee he was too absorbed to notice. The protagonists, having attracted no attention and seeing play moving up field disengaged and rejoined the game in time to participate in a Drybrook scrum. Visiting scrum half Ben George was penalised for feeding and from the resulting free kick Prop Gareth Walker set up the first of a series of rucks along the Drybrook five. After several attempts at the touchdown it was new boy Ted Niblett who brushed past two defenders for the score converted by Pearce for 14-22.

The question of mental attitude arose this week as it will again next Saturday. The legacy that former captain Sam Harris left the club was perhaps was a demonstration of the effect of mental resolve. Losing the promotion play off at Chew Valley was not an option. The game itself was the nearest thing to perfection ever witnessed by Cullompton supporters. This is the resolve needed by Cullompton next week against the university; just remember that the record against them to date is won two, drawn one, lost one!