Dings secured second place

National Three SW
Dings Crusaders RFC
Saturday 8th April 2017
Ivybridge 17 Dings 23

Dings secured second place with a hard fought three tries to one win over fourth placed Ivybridge. Trailing14-3 and on the wrong side of the referee going into the final quarter Dings stepped up the pace and ran in three unanswered tries to claim the win and a promotion playoff place with a game to spare.

After a missed penalty from Dings scrum half Steve Plummer Ivybridge opened the scoring on eighteen minutes with a try from centre Lewis Paterson set up by a barnstorming charge down the hill from his own half by full back Charlie Briant. Dings replied with a penalty from Plummer and the first half closed with a drop goal from Ivybridge standoff Mitch Pinkus for an 8-3 lead to the home side.
The third quarter was dogged by a constant stream of penalties mainly against Dings with the home side stretching their lead with two more penalty kicks from Pinkus.

Dings were sparked into life with a solo try on sixty minutes from Dings man of the match centre Matt Smith who crashed through the centre and handed off two defenders to touchdown in the corner.
Dings second try also went to Smith ten minutes later when he took advantage of a great lineout catch and drive from the pack to squeeze over in the corner.

With the Dings now camped on the Ivybridge try line they took the lead for the first time in the match five minutes from full time when Plummer battled over for a try under the posts which he converted for 23-17 to Dings.
Man of the Match – Dings No 13 Matt Smith

Scorers

Dings
Tries- Smith 2, Plummer
Cons- Plummer
Pens- Plummer 2

Ivybridge
Tries- Paterson
Con-
Pens Pinkus 3
Drop - Pinkus

written Richard Grant