PLYMOUTH TITANS 30-42 EAST DEVON EAGLES

The East Devon Eagles maintained their Devon Cup hoodoo over Plymouth as they fought back from 20-6 down to win 42-30 at Stonehouse. Whilst the Titans have had the edge in League competition, the Exmouth club have now won all three Cup contests, 37-36 in last season’s qualifier, 48-40 in the Final and now 42-30.

The game was delayed for twenty minutes as some of the Eagles squad were held up in the Lord Mayor’s Day celebrations in the City Centre but when referee Darren Hayes blew time on there was no delay in the hard hitting action. After ten minutes of stalemate, Titans’ Matt Anstis grubbered through on half way for Matt Tichias to toe on to Ben Kirby. From a quick play the ball, three quick passes fed Micky Ferguson to score near the uprights, Anstis’ goal giving the Green and Whites a 6-0 lead.Ferguson added another and when Kyle Browne finished off another slick passing move to dive over in the right hand corner the Titans led 14-0 after 25 minutes.

The hard hitting defence of both sides was making progress up the middle difficult and it was a sixty metre rush down the left wing by Richard King, fending off two Titans defenders to touch down by the flag that opened the Eagles’ account, Richard Cadywould’s touchline conversion opening the sharpshooter’s seven goal tally.

The Titans continued to press the Eagles line and following a penalty for stealing the ball in a two man tackle, Lee Colton finished off a left to right passing sequence to score, again out wide, to give Anstis a difficult attempt at goal which the big stand off converted to give a seemingly comfortable 20-6 lead with five minutes to the break. However, the visitors raised their hopes with a Michael Wilson try with two minutes left on the clock to close the gap to 20-10 at the break.

Half time seemed to break the Titans concentration and the Eagles started the second period the stronger, Tony Emmins crashing onto a popped pass under the sticks to burst through the flimsy goal line defence and three minutes later Dave McCarthy equalised with Cadywould’s goal moving the visitors into the lead for the first time.

Bullocking prop Dave Shepherd continued his rich vein of tryscoring form adding a twenty metre galloping effort, dragging three would be defenders with him, to his two tries against the Vikings last week and another against the Royal Navy for the West of England side in midweek.

The Titans lack of discipline began to take it’s toll, with Cadywould punishing them with long ranging touchfinders from penalties to put the Eagles on the offensive, Jascha Sacek’s try resulting from a tap restart. Cadywould turned tryscorer after a wicked bounce from a speculative midfield kick wrong footed Matt Anstis and he added the goal from right in front  to extend the Eagles lead to ten points.

Three minutes later, Richard King bagged his second try of the day to kill off any hopes of a Titans win and Cadywould’s 73^rd minute penalty sealed the win before Kyle Browne collected a chip over the defensive line by Anstis to make it 42-30 but it was too little too late and the Eagles returned home to Exmouth with the points and a first winning step on their attempt to retain their Devon Cup crown.

Titans coach Rob Stockwell was disappointed after the game, citing a move away from the game plan and some poor second half tackling as the reasons for his side’s second half capitulation. After last week’s encouraging victory over the Somerset Vikings, he has plenty of work to do to raise his troops for the challenge of a visit from the Exeter Centurions to Stonehouse Creek next Saturday (3pm).

PLYMOUTH TITANS:  Ben Ashford, Lee Colton, Kyle Browne, Martin Browne, Ben Kirby, Matt Anstis, Billy Stockwell, Dave Shepherd, Micky Ferguson, Jack Martin, Gareth Williams, Declan O’Connell, Matt Tichias, Declan Saxton, Simon Galloway, Jamie Miles, Paul Cioffi, Gavin Boak, Jamie Fraine, Ryan Tunnicliffe.

Tries: Ferguson (2), Kyle Browne (2), Colton, Shepherd, Goals: Anstis (3

EAST DEVON EAGLES:  Mark Wathes, Richard White, Jack Downie, Jascha Sacek, Nathan Budd, Sean Lovett, Richard Cadywould, Paul Flower, Dave McCarthy, Andrew Melbourne, Richard Sharp, Andrew Vickers, Tony Emmins, Michael Wilson, Andrew Lendon, Nick Smith, Cameron McMurrin, Darren Bowden, Jack Westlake.

Tries: King (2), Wilson, Emmins, McCarthy, Sacek, Cadywould. Goals: Cadywould (7)

Referee: Darren Hayes (Wootten Bassett)

Half Time: 20-10