3rds- kick off campaign with entertaining victory

The second game of the day at Oaklands saw the Legends take on Crediton 3rd team who, short of numbers, drafted in at least 6 of their 2nd team players. This was a game that wouldn’t disappoint the large number of supporters who turned up to watch.

Losing the toss led to the Legends playing downhill first half, much to the dismay of the players who weren’t starting!!!!! The first 10 minutes saw both sides attacking each other without any team making any real breakthrough. The first scrum of the day was on the Legends 22m line however a big push saw the Legends pushing Crediton backwards at a rate of knots which led to Beano being able to clear the lines with a good clearing kick.

Shortly after the Legends won a penalty after a jinxing run by Beano, who was starting in an unfamiliar role of fly half. With the earlier dominance in the scrum the Legends front row of Bubble, Knotty and Nicky Martin were keen to take the option of a scrum. Moments later it paid off when Chris Knott crashed through for the first try of the game. Lee Carey missed the resulting kick. 5-0.

Crediton started to attack more from deep and were awarded a penalty after a high tackle. Crediton kicked for position however the Legends stole the line out and cleared their lines. Crediton came closest to opening their account after a good run by Scriv eventually led to Crediton turning the ball over. From deep again they ran the ball back at the Legends only to be thwarted by a good cover tackle by Knotty.

Moments later the Legends got their revenge and turned the ball over close to the touch line. The ball was fed out to Dave Wills who raced through to score. Lee Carey’s kick was good. 12-0

Shortly after Beano put a clever kick over the top which was bundled in to touch by Crediton 5 meters out. Unfortunately though the Legends lost their own line out and Crediton cleared their lines. However just minutes later Willsy raced down the wing again and crossed over for his 2nd try of the game. This time though Lee wasn’t able to add the extra two points. 17-0.

The Legends were starting to pile on the pressure and nearly scored again after Richie crashed through the middle only to be stopped short of the line by a good cover tackle. The Legends debutant scrum half, Corey Holliday, was having a good game and set Willsy up for his “hat trick” with a good chip over the top. Corey then took the conversion and slotted the ball through the middle of the posts. 24-0. At this point Crediton were happy to hear the half time whistle.

The second half saw Crediton attacking down the hill and it wasn’t long before one of their dominant 2nd team players broke through the Legends defence, sitting Lee Carey down in the process, and setting up Crediton to score their first try. Lee would be reminded of this later!!! The resulting kick was good, 24-7.

Shortly after Crediton were awarded a free kick 10 meters out and broke through again to score. Kick missed 24-12. The Legends started to rush things to ease the pressure which resulted in a third Crediton try when a Legends line out on their own try line went wrong and gifted Crediton with the score. The kick was again missed 24-19.

Crediton could see a comeback on the cards and were putting a lot of pressure on the Legends who had to rally around and dig deep. Whilst waiting for the Crediton conversion to take place the Legends stand in skipper, birthday boy Gary Carey, must have said some motivational words to the team as they came back fighting!

The Legends started to win more ball and slowly gained ground. A good run up the saw the Legends awarded a penalty on Crediton’s 22m line. Another good scrum and drive took the Legends up to the 5m line where Crediton gave away another penalty with the Legends almost certain to score. The referee had had enough of this and awarded the Penalty try.

With the extras added it took the score to 31-22 with just 5 minutes left. The final 5 minutes saw the Legends defending again but they held out to secure the win.

This was a superb effort from the whole team who gave everything and it was fantastic to see such good support from the watching crowd.