MATCH REPORT: No guts no glory - Honiton digs deep despite the gloom

On a gloomy and very cold Saturday, Honiton were at home with an unscheduled rearranged game form the week before when the pitches were waterlogged.

It was supposed to be a free week for recuperation but as is invariably the case with free weekends and the unpredictability of the winter weather, catch up games usually fill up any week's off.

The visitors were Wiveliscombe, a side Honiton haven't played in many a year and for both teams promotion to this league has proved a challenge and both sit one position apart in the bottom half of the league.

Allhallows slope is often a factor in the general play of most games and with a keen wind coming down the pitch as well playing upward for whoever - it was going to be tough.

The visitors won the toss and elected to do just that to get the advantage in the second half.

Exchanges for the first ten minutes were pretty even. Honiton would have hoped with the slope and wind advantage to have made more inroads and a long range penalty kick form Ollie Cave just went wide as the visitors soaked up the pressure well.

For Honiton the injury voodoo was back again, as firstly veteran second row and club stall thwart Nick Guilbert had to leave the fields with a knee injury and almost immediately his replacement David Maynadie-Morales aggravated an injury he'd just recovered from and he also had to leave the field and with a very depleted pack life in the scrum department got a whole lot worse.

Despite the set backs the Ton were first on the score sheet after 25 minutes of play when Cave slotted a well struck penalty for a hard fought 3-0 lead.

The Honiton back line then started to get passes strung together and a good break by Ben Small saw the ball moved right and the ever present Will Goulden showed good pair of hands to gather a loose pass off his boots and run in for the first try of the game.

Ollie Cave added the extras from wide out to give Honiton a 10-0 lead.

More woe for Honiton's forwards as Louie Lane also had to leave the field with a cut eye and Honiton now had to put backs into the pack to shore things up.

With the half nearing an end a good solo break again from Ben Small saw him on an unstoppable charge to the line and he went over running through the hapless defender. Cave expertly hit the conversion from wide.

The visitors finished the half strongly and right on the whistle, a five metre scrum saw them drive the depleted home side's pack back over the line for a try which was not converted but given the injury woes, Honiton would have been happy with the 17-5 score line.

The question for the very cold supporters was this: was the points tally enough with the elements now in the Somerset visitors favour?

Wiveslisombe came out 'all guns blazing' and again from a scrum from close range, they shunted Honiton back to score and this time the extras went over to reduce the deficit to a single score at 17-12.

Wiveliscombe were reduced to fourteen with yellow card to their replacement flanker for cynical tackle from an offside position but despite the man advantage the Ton were still struggling to escape their own twenty two and from a turnover at scrum time.

A ball spun wide saw the visitors get their third try of the game, the conversion from wide left went over and they took the lead for the first time at 17-19 and really, given the elements advantage and with only 15 minutes gone Honiton looked doomed.

Despite the fears, Honiton did have an advantage in the backs and a never say die expansive counter attack plan was adopted by player coach Brooks and they started to make inroads up the park.

From one of the adventurous exits from the Honiton's twenty two, they spin the ball wide and broke up field, they kept the ball in hand and were rewarded with a penalty which Ollie Cave calmly knocked over to retake the lead at 20-19.

A second yellow card of the game against the strong running visitors second row defiantly helped Honiton's cause as he would take no further part in the game and this time, Honiton took advantage of being a man up and after a break by Alex Brooks he released the hard working Ben Logan who crashed over to score.

Ollie Cave held his nerve and added the extras to give them a two score lead at 27-19 with moments left on the clock.

The away side however were not done and got a second push over try and again, this was right on the whistle for full time and with the kick converted it did mean they had secured two losing bonus points with a close score of 27-26 to the Ton.

For Honiton in an injury ravaged season, a win is a win and having weathered the storm of losing all their second rows early on and looking dead and buried after 15 minutes of the second half, this was a gritty performance in the gloom.

There was praise for Louie Lane who returned to the battle, despite struggling to see out of his badly cut eye and there were some good performance for all of the team.

Small and Goulden in particular were picked out for extra praise and Brooks marshalled the show well at 10 but again, it was Ollie Cave who got the man of the match nod, for some great defensive work and a calm cool head with several pressure kicks.

Onwards and upwards and next week see the Ton at home again as they welcome fellow Devon and Cornwall promotes Penryn, which given last years very close encounters with them it will be tough.