After the home loss against this side early in the season Cully travelled to The Sports Ground at Bitton Park full of resolve. The visitors however were delighted to get out of jail with the draw from a last minute penalty but the mood afterwards was one of dissatisfaction for although they had put up a much better performance against the seasiders on this occasion, team manager Steve Luxon and captain Sean Mardell were both of the opinion that with seventy per cent of the possession and territory, victory had been lost by a few fifty fifty passes and a lack of patience when pressing in the opposition twenty two.

The course of the match was influenced by several factors. Gareth Chambers Walker was missed at loosehead making the scrum a much more even contest than it had been at Stafford Park but with lock Simon Kittow in the lineout this set piece was a banker for Cully with opposition hooker Ben Allison taking great care to keep the ball well away from him on the home throws. Cully players made a great effort on linespeed in defence but referee Steve Bubyer seemed to feel that such quick engagement must be illegal and gave numerous penalties for off side.

Teignmouth managed two out of five successful kicks off the tee, not helped when their ten and place kicker Faoline Lidstone hobbled off in the thirty sixth minute, whereas Cully’s Adam Pearce was on target with all six attempts but saw two fall slightly short into the deceptively strong breeze in the second half. As with last time Teignmouth’s strengths lay in a really quick set of backs and a spectacular three man clearance at the ruck which left tackled Cully players and ball totally exposed two metres away from support.

Cully flyhalf, Lewys Ryan, set the tone for the opening quarter with a fine first minute clearance kick which found touch on the Teignmouth five. Soon regaining the ball Cully probed the defence with commendable patience and some sound passing in the face of a resolute Teign defence which was caught offside in the fifth minute. At the Cully penalty lineout prop Chris Grant was again on form with the put in and lanky lock Simon Kittow, lifted high, reinforced his reputation as a great technician in this set piece. A home knock on in the tackle led to a series of three scrums in the sixth and seventh minutes with the Cully pack scrapping hard to re-establish the ascendancy they enjoyed in their last encounter with this side.

The issue of scrummaging top dog remained unresolved but Cully sent their number eight, George Woofenden, away with clean ball on the third reset which was the start of a three minute passage of play that led to the opening score. The ball moved through hooker Tom Harold, winger James Shere and winger Josh Luxon to Ryan who was divested of it by a crunching tackle from the formidable looking , bearded Teignmouth loosehead. Shere however collected the clearance and initiated an attractive sequence of play with his pass to flanker Ollie Reed. Next lock Henry Niblett battered his way through the opposition to make good ground before dispatching the ball to the left where Mardell, Harold and Niblett again maintained momentum to release full back Marcus Busch to the home twenty two where he drew the penalty which centre Pearce slotted for the opening points, score 0-3.

Cully continued to dominate possession and territory until a seventeenth minute penalty award for off side handed an opportunity to Teignmouth and highlighted the cost of indiscipline. A penalty lineout in the Cully twenty two was well resisted with fine tackles by Woofenden and Busch on the solid loosehead but the Teign openside found the gap in the line and drew a penalty on the visitor’s five. A penalty lineout ten metres out was taken into a drive which crossed the line but was held up. Cully however had conceded advantage to the opposition and the next maul gave hooker Ben Allison the try and Teignmouth a 5-3 lead in the twenty first minute which was not improved upon by their flyhalf Faoline Lidstone who sliced the conversion to miss a sitter.

In the twenty sixth minute after good progress into the opposition half from a lineout on half way, a fine penalty by Pearce from just inside the opposition ten regained the lead 5-6 only for Lidstone to demonstrate that he too could kick well after his poor start, four minutes later. Teign snatched a loose ball after Busch and scrum half, Tom Frankpitt, had collided attempting to take a high ball and the penalty was conceded just outside the twenty two. Lidstone had slotted the difficult kick into the wind for a home lead of 8-6

Three minutes later Cully regained the lead when a Teign lock spilled the restart in his own twenty two. Frankpitt did well to come away from a retreating scrum and as Busch then Mardell carried towards the line Teignmouth were caught off side. The speed of the Frankpitt tap penalty left defenders no option but to tackle within ten metres and Cully elected for the five metre scrum from which a series of drives near the opposition goal posts was concluded by a pick and go by Harold easily converted by Pearce for the 8-13 half time lead. The half ended when replacement winger Jacob Wood came away with the ball after an opposition visit to the Cully twenty two and chipped to touch at the other end.

The Cully inquest on the match will focus on Teignmouth’s two second half tries as strict adherence to drills constantly practiced in training and protocols thoroughly discussed every Tuesday and Thursday could have prevented both. The first one came in third minute of the third quarter when Cully stormed forward with their opening dropout and knocked on giving Teignmouth the scrum. From their scrum the ball passed to centre Matt Laventure who slipped through a dog leg in the defensive line and shot off to half way where he slipped the ball to winger Jack Maine who was able to go in under the posts leaving an easy conversion for Laventure who had replaced the injured Lidstone as kicker

This evened the score at 13-13 but worse was to come as it was of course still the festive season, the twelfth day of Christmas and as Cully teams have done in the past, they decided to give the young Teign replacement winger, Henry Raby a present in the fifty fifth minute. As Raby bore down on a Cully back leaping to field a high ball, a fellow back called for a pass which the catcher tried to give, leaving Raby with a juicy interception which he carried to the corner to grab the lead again at 18-13 as Laventure was unable to convert.

This Teignmouth try represented a tiny ninety second island of possession and territory in a period of Cully dominance that extended from the forty third to the seventy second minute. Early in this period young Wood, who may or may not have noticed a home player touch down in goal, looked streetwise as he tackled that player who was sprinting to catch out Cully with a quick twenty two dropout. On sixty six minutes diligent approach work was rewarded with a try to equalise at 18-18. Teignmouth hacked clear to repel a threatening Cully incursion but Shere caught the ball and passed to centre Dan Sanders who moved it on to Mardell. Mardell appeared to lose the ball but the referee binned a Teignmouth lock for persistently entering at the side of the ruck giving Cully a penalty lineout in the middle of the home twenty two. Teignmouth, expecting the maul, were totally unprepared when Woofenden shot through the line to score an unconverted try.

Well into injury time Cully were caught offside and Laventure punished them with a fine kick for the three point lead but the referee announced there would be a restart as five seconds remained on the clock. The Teignmouth shouts of victory were silenced as their team gave away a penalty and after a tense minute as Pearce lined up a difficult opportunity it was Cully’s turn to cheer as the ball crept over the crossbar for the 21-21 draw.

NB Chris Grant – get that Christmas tree down before the Bideford game!!