Ton move into the South West Counties finals with hard fought win at Penryn

Saturday saw Honiton take a break from League action to start their possible Journey to play at Twickenham in the Senior Vase competition. This was in any ones book going to be a tough ask as opposition for the day, was the small matter of Penryn who are based down in deepest darkest Cornwall.
Penryn who are incidentally the oldest club in the country, being founded in 1872, currently also play in Honiton's league and as it turns out, are sitting in second spot with only Honiton above them courtesy of points difference. Add to this, they also have a bit of a fortress at home having not lost all season on their ground and they also had the bragging rights against The Ton, having narrowly beaten them 21-16 on their last trip down in October. So... basically it was a top verses second clash but this time it was a "winner takes all" situation with nothing for the losers. For Honiton it's clear that with a good crowd, support can make a big difference so, hiring a bus they took a "merry" band of Tonites and flooded the ground and basically out numbered the home crowd at a club that has a good set up, with proper supporters and big stands and are perhaps, a bit of a sleeping giant in terms of facilities, ground and pedigree.

It was a bitterly cold day and Honiton were asked to start the game with a strong wind behind them. It was a very tentative start with both sides understandably a little nervous. Set plays were "even Stevens" and with some wayward early kicking from both sides neither team could really get any patterns going and it was to be fair a bit of a no advantage start. Honiton had a shot at goal but Cave pulled it wide and the stale mate continued long into the half.
Two penalties saw Penryn move in to Honiton’s half but great defending by Josh Rice saw him win a penalty at the breakdown and pressure was relieved with a good clearance kick.Louis Lane forced another turnover and Honiton pressed but to be fair it was the defence of both sides that was still winning the day.
It was "The Burrough" (which is Penryn's nicknamed), who broke the deadlock on the 35 minute mark and they knocked over a well struck penalty, following an offside decision against the Ton.
However within minutes of this set back, Honiton moved the ball deep into the Penryn half and a deliberate slowing down of the ball saw the Cornishmen reduced to 14 men with yellow card. Honiton took full advantage with a strong passage of "pick and goes" by the big men and we think it was Harry Wright who was bundled over near the posts with his pack on top of him. Cave converted the easy goal and Honiton held this 3-7 lead into the break and it was clear to all watching, this was going to be a tough afternoon.
Yet again defence dominated the general pattern of play into the second half with perhaps Honiton looking the more dangerous in the early stages.
The home side however clearly know their own pitch and a smart kick ahead saw Honiton on the back foot and they were then camped on their own line and they really had to dig deep, with wave upon wave of pick and goes from the Burrough. Something had to give and with a series of infringement the ref decided Honiton should lose a player to the bin and Harry Wright got the "team" yellow card.
Penryn took full advantage of this and with a rare defensive error Penryn's scrum half slipped through a gap for their first try of the day. The conversion attempt hit the post and Penryn held a slender 8-7 lead.
With tails up the home side then enjoyed their best period of the game and looked slightly more in control of proceeding and they scored again when their left wining rounding Honiton's defensive line. This time the kicker made no mistake and he slotted it to put them 15-7 ahead which was two scores out in front and frankly for the large travelling army of supporters you could sense all were resigned to a defeat.

The Ton though, are made of stern stuff and they started to have a clear dominance in the scrums and they were shunting the home side about in the pack. Honiton's cause was also help when again the Cornishmen were reduced to 14 men this time the Penryn second row " cloths lined" Cootie who was on the charge. Surprisingly he was only given a yellow card for what was clearly a head high tackle. Crucially though he would play no further part in proceeding with just 8 minutes to go. Honiton pressed and from another shunted back scrum Wright broke blind and crashed over out wide and with a superb "boomerang" kick from out wide, Cave knocked over the conversion to bring the score to with in one point at 15-14 which would have made it a respectable defeat with just a minute remaining.

Frankly it was to late to get another score especially as the home side pushed Honiton right back to their own line from the restart. Then the miracle happened! Honiton won the ball "General" Brooks swung a wide pass to Cave, who fed Cootie and he took it out to the 22 and fixed Jake Smith man, this gave Smith the space and he to roar up the field on the right, he was checked on the defending 10 meter line but a fitter Honiton side had men their in numbers and the recycled ball was then swung right across the pitch and Bill Baily who'd run the length of the filed to be there was able to feed the ball to Will Tyers who crossed in the corner for an incredible team try. Cave celebrated his difficult missed conversion because he knew that was the final play of the game and Honiton had clutched the 15-19 victory from the jaws of defeat. Their was much "hooting and hollering and banging of the now infamous cow bell" from the exuberant Ton army of fans, who had minutes earlier thought the dream was over. What a game!

For the Ton squad it was a fantastic feat to travel all the way down to a fairly intimidating ground and beat what was a good side in their own back yard. Maybe key to the victory was fitness at the death, as the home side fell away badly in the last ten minutes. Hard to pick a man of the match but Adam Thompson had to drink the pint for the honour winning it for his mates.
Always looking for improvements and it's hard to say it on a wonderful day for the Ton, but I don't think on the whole, this was a particularly good performance by the boys given the high standards they've set them selves now adays. There were lots of unforced errors but we have to say it was a big, good opposition that also had a good defence and that has to be factored in and perhaps several of the Ton players were a little "nerve struck" by the big occasion. This situation will only get worse as rounds progress, so they will need to work on dealing with this and of course at the same time remaining focused on there other priority, which is the small matter of a tough league fixture this weekend which is again away in Cornwall.

What an atmosphere in the Penryn club house after the game the Ton Army just took the place over and everywhere you looked was a beaming Tonite and then to cap it all off they stayed to watch the English stuff the Irish in their back yard as well. Commiserations to Honiton's Irish skipper Will Goulden for that but I'm guessing, he won't be too upset as his boys did the real job for him on the Penryn field.

Huge thanks to all the "Tonites" who travelled it really did make a big difference and for me I didn't realise you can take an atmosphere with you to away games!
Big thanks to Penryn who put on a good show on the day and were gracious in defeat even though they must have been gutted!

Next up is Burnham on Sea at Home on the 23rd Feb which is the SW counties finals