Withies Stumble at Saltash with 41-17 defeat

The Withies began to lose the structure that they’ve usually built when dealing with heavily attacking sides. This meant that gaps were opened, allowing the Saltash backs a little too much space and run in two additional tries in similar format to the first ones. This gave the Ashes a strong 34-0 lead after 34 minutes.

Withycombe finally managed to build up some considerable pressure and pin the hosts up in their 22’. When Ashes’ Fullback Ryan Cruikshanks disrupted the Withy attack with a deliberate knock on, he was shown a yellow card, creating an important gap in the defence.

This was exploited well by Withy’s George Doughty who broke away from the driving maul to score in the corner. Tom Cooke’s touchline conversion completed the half with the score at 34-7.

Withies pressured the hosts in a manner a little more like we have come to expect in recent games and with Saltash pinned down in the dipping far corner, Withy turned the screw and mauled the ball over the try line.

With no clear grounding seen by the referee, there was another scrum. This time, there was to be no mistake as the shove came stronger than the last, allowing Mike Richards to touch down the ball and score.

Saltash responded with another try of their own soon after the restart, when a break from their fly-half made the distance for a simple hand-off to score under the posts.

Despite the scoreline, the Withies continued to battle, and made the game a much more equal affair, so much so the next (and final) points of the game went their way when another well worked passage of play saw the ball marched forward in the scrum, Richards peeled away once more to score.

Withies scrapping hard in Cornwall (Image: Adam Curtis)