The rebranded Honiton Otters kicked of the new season by welcoming Cullompton seconds to alhallows for a friendly, a phrase not usually associated to these teams meeting.

With Cully playing in a league above Honiton, this was going to be a great test before the start of their league season next week. The game started with the Otters playing up the slope and receiving the kick off. It was clear from the early minutes that cullompton had turned up to play and with the lions share of possession they seemed well in control of early proceedings which was also not helped with some fairly basic ref decisions not being picked up and cullompton ran in the first score of the day. Honiton tried to regrouped but the visitor looked very confident and again they scored courtesy of some dubious decisions, which was I’m afraid, to be a feature of the fixture. Another quick fire score by the visitors left Honiton shell shocked and at 21-0 in just 15 minutes and a rout looked on the cards!

Honiton had two options either turn up and put the pressure on or lie down and let Cully walk in many more. Thankfully the Otters decided to put the pressure on and this started to force errors on Cullomptons part. One such error allowed Andy Canniford to pick up a lose pass in his own 22 to run over half the pitch to get the first Score for the ton. Jake Smith converted, making it 7-21.

Honiton continued with the pressure right up to the break and the teams turned around with the ton still 14 points adrift, but certainly looking more dangerous. After the break the Otters really turned the gas on for 20 minutes, in which time Will Tyres, who looked dangerous all day with ball in hand, run in a brace, and his fellow winger, Sam Heathcote, make a good break down the wing and pick up a loose ball to run in for his first of the season.

With Jake smith converting, the score was now 26-28 with all to play for going in to the last twenty. Cully then came back with a score of their own, to make it 26-35, but Honiton battled on and their hard work as pressure paid off when Josh Tatlock was on hand to finish off in the corner to leave the score at 31-35 with 5 minutes to go. Unfortunately the whistle came a bit too quick and the ton couldn’t find the points and the game finished 31-35.

There were several positives to take from the Tons performance, especially the way they pulled back from 21 points down. There were some good individual performances, with George Shepherd having a good game at scrum half, Andy Canniford putting in a good shift, but man of the match had to go to will tyres who topped of a great all round performance with two try’s.

Let’s look forward to building on this weeks positives, when the otters travel to exmouth for their first league game of the season next week