This Saturday sees the third round of matches in the 2021/22 Tribute Cornwall/Devon league and the Withies are heading up to mid Devon to play Cullompton.

With the first two matches ending in a narrow defeat to Bude and then last week’s late equaliser at Raleigh Park against Plymstock Albion Oaks, the momentum in the team is beginning to grow; this coupled with the return of a couple players from injury this week, the boys will want to put in a confident performance against Cully.

As far this season, our hosts, Cullompton have only played one game, a game which saw them lose 21-15 away at Bude last weekend. This result puts them tenth in the table, one place below Withy who sit in ninth.

Apart from a pre-season friendly in 2016, it’s been some years since we last played Cully in a competitive fixture, back when both sides played their rugby in Western Counties West in the season that they were promoted to South West 1.
Club Secretary, Dave Josey reflects back saying: “We have a long history with Cullompton dating back to well before the leagues began. The fortunes of both clubs have fluctuated over the years, so it’s good to be back on a par with them”

Speaking in his usual pre-match comments, Sam Williams said: “After 2 games we have 3 points and if I'm being honest I wish we had 9... That said, and on reflection I think we should be happy enough with the results so far, given that we have played 2 very well established teams in this league, with a side with lots of new and young faces in it.
The challenge this week has been to progress again, and ensure we get a bit more of what we are practicing in training shows up on the pitch.
If Cullompton's result against Bude is anything to go by then this Saturday is shaping up to be another close game... Not that I want that.
I think the pack we have this week is potentially very impressive, it's certainly very fit and be able to bring back in Connor Gilby and Jake Prophett-O’Neill, along with handing a debut to new signing Greg Rhodes is exciting. Considering that we have Luke Pattison, Jack Musgrave, Max Cooke and Dave Richards all to return from injury it's all looking quite exciting.
In the backs I feel we have a nice balance and I'm hoping we can utilise the pace at our disposal, and that Will Cooper at 10 opens up his attacking game in his last game before heading off to University.
I'm sure that Saturday will see us take another step forward and hopefully this week we can find the win we've been so close to for the last 2 weeks”

Tomorrow’s game kicks off at 3pm from Stafford Park in Cullompton. We hope to see as many of you come along and cheer on the boys being that 16th man. The postcode for those using a satnav is: EX15 1PZ. If you’re unable to join us, you could always head down to Raleigh Park to watch the Withy 2s who are in action against Crediton 3rds in a friendly match. Kick off there is at 2:30pm.
Live match updates will be available online for both games, but the website addresses for the 1st XV match can be found at: http://bit.ly/cul-wit

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