Clifton overcome in the mud

Darren was informed by Launceston on the Friday afternoon that following a pitch inspection the game on the following day was on. It then proceeded to pour down on the Friday night but by the time the lads assembled on the following morning there was not a cloud in the sky.

It remained like this until we were to the east of Exeter when dirty clouds raced across the sky and there was the odd short but heavy shower. When we reached Polson Bridge it was not raining and from the touchline the pitch had a fair covering of grass and looked solid but when walking on it was a different story as it was soft and muddy..

It was obvious from the start of the game that the conditions were difficult and were suited to the style of play of the home side who like ourselves have not lost at home this season.

We were playing down the slope in the first half but with our players struggling to find a firm footing we were quickly forced on to the back foot. It was difficult to make progress on a pitch which quickly resembled a ploughed field. The home side were more comfortable on the ball and were able to generate pace on occasions . They went in front when winger Kyle Speare found a dry route to the corner to score try after 11 minutes.

Our pack was finding life difficult and Greg Nicholls was finding it difficult to clear the ball away from the pack. We were fielding a young back row and within half an hour lost Steve Uren and Hugo Govett through injury which meant the first of many
re-organisations.

The home side doubled their score just before the break when No 8 BJ Chapman forced his way over just before the break,

We managed to put more pace on the game as our backs began to find their way through the mud. We however had to replace 3 further players through injury. It cannot be often that a side uses all its replacements to cover injuries. Wing Ben Foley making only his second outing of the season following a knee injury suffered a repeat of the injury which will keep him on the sidelines for several weeks. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Tom Preece had come on as a replacement made a clean break and appeared to have created a scoring opportunity but was stopped in his tracks by a cynical trip which earned the offender a yellow card. Eventually we did score when Charlie Foley went over for an unconverted try. It looked if we would come away with a losing bonus point but there was still one evil twist to come.

The game was in its dying throes and we tried to run the ball out of defence but possession was lost and a 5 metre scrum awarded. The scrum was reset on 3 occasions and then at the next scrum a penalty try was awarded and scrum half Jake Murphy added the conversion. After the game the referee spoke to Darren and admitted that he had made an error in awarding the try.

Darren ‘s greater problem is the inability of his side to win away from home. He cannot put his figure on it. If it had been solved some weeks ago it was possible we could be looking at a top 3 finish.