Ton win well at home

With the visit of Tavistock to Allhallows this weekend Honiton had the opportunity to build on their steady run of improvements in front of a healthy partisan home crowd. Playing in their “change” strip they took to the field in confident mood and elected to play up the slope with the use of what was a generous breeze blowing towards the top left hand corner.

It took time to get the measure of the visitors but you could see momentum building as the game went on and using the wind well they played a lot of the first half in the opposition territory. Honiton went close on a couple of occasions but didn’t break the deadlock until the half hour mark when neat hands by the backs saw the ball get to teenager Will Tyres, he stepped his man and had a run round to score under the posts Andy Canniford knocked over the extras. This score seemed to settle Honiton and within minutes they had scored again when good work from the forwards to grind the opposition down was rewarded with a penalty and with a quick tap and go, Josh Rice dotted down under the posts for another converted try. Finally on the stroke of half time again another good passage of play saw loose forward Corry Pulman crash over for Honiton’s third try. Canniford add the extras to give Honiton, for the first time this season, a comfortable lead at the break at 21-0.

The second half meant Honiton now had use of the infamous Allhallows slope Honiton and were clearly on top through out and despite the wind being against them, the Moorlanders struggle to get out of their half and with a procession of injuries to their key players they struggled to put anything together as Honiton dominated . The scrum ran riot, Matt Olive as a stand in prop a few weeks back has made a big difference to Honiton’s fortunes and he gets better by the week but he needs to be given a bigger shirt next time. This solid platform meant the backs had plenty of ball to work with but if there was a criticism on the day it was the fact that the second half was a little error strung with inexplicable dropped balls at key moments. The Lacemen should also have been awarded a penalty try on the twenty minute mark as a deliberate slap down of the ball during a try scoring pass was missed by the ref. Despite this, Honiton did cross twice, Tyres got his second when Cootie executed a the perfect 2 on 1 pass and with time running out some sustained pressure saw a quick release from the ruck and unselfish hands by Jack Proctor allowed Tyres to notch up his hatrick on what was a good day for him.

Honiton ran out comfortable winners and they so could have scored four maybe five more tries in the second half but in a season where success has been in a limited supply the Lacemen were just happy with what they got and with all said and done it was a convincing victory. Yes loads to work on, great to have the students back and with a trip down to Newquay next Saturday, Honiton hope to go into Christmas having turned the corner with their fortunes. Amongst the celebration afterwards there was a good sending off for young Aussie James Whattman who returns down under after a farming sabbatical on the Cook estate.

Honiton’s second string who are also in confident mood were mightily disappointed to have their game called off at the 11th hour but this helped to bolster the partisan crowd for the ones game.