A pleasant autumnal afternoon in the South Hams played host to Withies’ second consecutive away match. After losing by a close margin last week, early points would be keen in building some momentum.
Withy had the perfect start with Callum Tose making the most of an early catch-and-drive to put his side ahead within the first minute!
The dream start continued for the boys when Tom Holmes finished off a great move with breaks from both Joe Blyth and Max Rickards to score his first try for the club. Lewis Tose’s touchline conversion put Withycombe 0-12 up after just five minutes.
Within ten minutes, Withies had their third try after the backs had a little time with the ball with Joe Graham getting his maiden Withy try. Another tough conversion from Tose extended the lead to 0-19.
Struggling to deal with the pressure the visitors were putting on them, Ivybridge’s hurried tackling started to cause themselves problems. This was escalated when they lost their fullback to the sin bin.
Withy kept up the pressure on the weakened side as they continued to ask questions of the Ivybridge defence; and after a brief spell of settled play, Withy were back over the try line for their bonus-point as Captain Joe Blyth created a gap in the defence to score.
The final try of the half came on the half-hour mark as a well-placed cross-field pass was caught beautifully by George Doughty who ran the final few yards to the line to give the Withy boys a healthy 0-31 lead at half time.

After a lengthy half time break, play resumed in much the way it had been in the opening forty minutes. More Withycombe pressure saw another prolonged period of play within the Ivybridge half. Before long, the Withies found themselves with a penalty around 7m out from the line. A quickly taken tap from George Doughty proved too strong for the defence he crashed his way through to score.
The relentless attacking play continued and with a high tackle leading to a second yellow card for Ivybridge, the numerical advantage allowed for a little more room to run; and with the home side unable to effectively bring Liam Cullen’s dash to the line to a stop, an outstretched arm was enough to give Withy a huge 45-point lead with an hour on the clock.
A more settled spell of play saw Withycombe’s defence tested, they weathered any attack well, preventing any try-scoring opportunities. In preventing a try, they settled with conceding the penalty with the gusty wind assisting the ball through the posts from the 10m line.
Withy responded well however and with the ball back up in the Ivybridge half, the ball was worked through the phases and further pressure was beginning to build once again. With the backs enjoying some gametime, a perfectly weighted chip kick from Man of the Match Danny Sansom put the ball well behind the defensive line and into the in-goal area. Sansom proceeded to win the footrace to the awaiting ball to score Withies’ eighth try of the afternoon; with another successful conversion following the masterful try, the boys were up to 52 points.
A final flurry of activity from Ivybridge in the last two minutes of the game was rewarded with a consolatory try close to the posts. With the conversion, the game was brought to an end with the final score at Ivybridge II 10, Withycombe 52.

Next week, the Withy boys return to Raleigh Park where they will look to keep some momentum going from this week as they welcome second-placed Devonport Services IIs. Kick off will be at 2:30pm.