Ruthless Withies romp to victory

Withy held the lion’s share of the possession in the early exchanges and, using their now trademark forward strength, Withycombe managed to ensure that the restarting scrums were well defended. 

The forwards combined well with the backs to test the Devonport defence as Withy looked to make the gains from within the visitor’s half. This defensive line stood strong until a deliberate knock-on from the Devonport Services’ Centre saw him sent to the sin bin and an attempt at goal for Harry Symons, which was duly sent between the uprights for three points. 

Symons doubled his points tally shortly after the first and with the penalty count building against the visitors, a second player was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes just as the first was making their way back to the field. 

Withy got their first try on the board courtesy of Joe Blyth who dotted the ball down over the line from a well-driven scrum. Symons’ conversion added the extra points to give Withy a 13-0 lead after half an hour. 

Keeping the play firmly lodged in the Devonport half, Withies earned themselves one more kickable penalty on the stroke of half time to put the home side 16-0 ahead at the break. 

With the second half up and running, Withy set up camp back in the Devonport half and with some more pressure from the scrum, the ball passed through the hands of half the team before eventually finding George Doughty who sprinted for the line for Withy’s second try. 

Now 21 points to the good, Withies continued to test the defensive skills of their Plymouth-based visitors, which, to their credit was working well. It wasn’t perfect though as, on the hour mark, Callum Tose exploited a gap in the defence to dart through and score his first senior XV try. 

After some strong defence, a bonus point try arrived thanks to an impressive run by Man of the Match Joe Blyth, who ran half the field to score his second try of the game. 

Next weekend, its derby day as Withycombe welcome Exmouth II to Raleigh Park.