After last week’s victory over North Petherton playing director Steve Luxon confessed to a little disappointment over the result against a team that finished one place lower than Pethy last season but was however pleased with the play and commitment of his side when fighting back from 24-0 in the second half. Indeed from the point of view of the playing squad the eighteen that travelled played well, the eighteen left at home were good enough to beat the last year’s Merit table winners, Oke seconds 19-17 and that was not even counting the half dozen who were attending a wedding. He was in no doubt that Harry William’s and Will Chudley’s teamwork approach to coaching would prove itself over the season and with a little work on the lineout this was a game that could have been won.

Cully started brightly and had their best period of the opening half in opposition territory for the first seven minutes which concluded when Okehampton were caught off side and in the absence of regular kicker Adam Pearce, centre Lewys Ryan shouldered the responsibility for the punt at goal but was unsuccessful with his ambitious kick uphill into a stiff wind. The main home team tactic then emerged when Cully conceded a penalty which was tapped through down the hill with the wind behind it and when the Cully defensive line stabilised they were in their own twenty two. After some initial Okehampton probing of the Cully defence their outside centre Gareth Espin cut a fine line through to score and standoff Richy Friend converted for 7-0.

On eleven minutes, Cully resumed the offensive from the scrum which was to be a reliable platform all afternoon even after the loss to injury of big lock Luke Ridler in the twenty seventh minute and prop John Snell in the tenth minute of the second half which says a lot about replacements Ollie Schuster-Wood and novice hooker Tom Harold, the progress of prop Gareth Chambers-Walker during the last year and the heroic role played by hooker/prop Chris Grant who looked a strong figure in the front row despite not being as young as he used to be. Good progress had been made by centre Dan Sanders and number eight Josh Mammola, flanker Sam Cooke had maintained momentum with a spectacular take at the end of the line. Winger James Shere and flanker Ollie Reed were carrying up field and passed to Sanders when this centre who has continued to look useful in his second game with the club, took a blow to the head and had to leave he field to be replaced with Paul Baker.

Shortly after the departure of Sanders, Cully lost possession and were caught off side on their ten from where Friend slotted a penalty to take the score to 10-0. Retaining the initiative, Oke cleared the restart to their favourite corner and Cully perhaps unwisely in a defensive lineout so close their own five chose the long throw which overshot the line gifting opposition lock Neil Perrott a try converted by Friend for 17-0 with twenty minutes on the clock. Not daunted Cully continued to press forward and with a lucky penalty kick by standoff Alex Brooks which found touch in the Oke twenty two after passing between the legs of the opposition nine Joey Bruce, the visiting pack were hoping to set up a drive but in the event the ball was lost and was again dispatched to the lower corner. Now more cautious, Cully retained the lineout ball with a short throw but after a few phases conceded a penalty which was kicked to touch and Perrott went over again behind a well organised maul with Friend adding the extras for 24-0 with only four minutes to go to the break.

After a “frank” discussion with Luxon at half time the team seemed reinvigorated at the resumption of play and weathered an Okehampton blitz in their twenty two for the opening five minutes, defying the best that their hosts could throw at them. In the forty sixth minute Okehampton were caught crossing and from the penalty lineout the ball moved quickly to winger Dave Harris who fed Schuster-Wood. Schuster-Wood wrestled the ball away from a couple of defenders who were endeavouring to strip it and was away clear to the line when the whistle halted play to award Cully a penalty as apparently an advantage had been held!

It was Okehampton’s turn to discover how difficult it was to get away from the bottom corner with the elements against them. A nice handling sequence through Baker, full back Marcus Busch, scrum half Jacob Wood to Ryan left the hosts with a lineout in their own twenty two but they could not get the ball upfield. They did manage to hold up a Cully player on fifty two minutes but conceded a scrum penalty amid much back slapping for Chambers-Walker who had forced his opposite number into submission. The ease with which the Cully forwards drove over the line from the ensuing lineout underlined the cost of losing critical lineout ball as had happened a minute so earlier. Mammola was credited with the try and Ryan converted for 24-7 on fifty four minutes.

The power of the Cully scrum and the cost of wasted lineout balls was again thrown into sharp relief in the sixty seventh minute. Harris finished a handling move with a canny grubber to touch and Okehampton had their backs to their twenty two again. Increasingly desperate defence saw the Oke eight Martin Harrison-Browne binned for a high tackle and it was the powerful Schuster-Wood who muscled his way over the line from a lineout deep in the twenty two who earned Cully the five metre scrum. That rarity the push over looked easy from the sidelines and it was indeed over very quickly with Grant touching down and Ryan converting for 14-24.

By this time Cully’s chances of victory had already slipped away and it was Okehampton who laid on the barnstorming finish in search of the fourth bonus point try. They certainly had to earn it and even after a lineout on the Cully five the play seemed deadlocked for several phases until a quick handling move the width of the pitch saw winger Ryan Lee squeeze into the corner for a try that Friend was unable to convert leaving the score at 29-14.