Westcountry Warriors 58 Exeter United 7

By Frank Stormont
October 9 2006

Westcountry Warriors show Albion how to beat an Exeter side as they run nine tries at Brickfields. With captain James Owen taking 4 for himself.

 

Westcountry Warriors 58
Exeter United 7

With the defeat of the senior side yesterday at Sandy Park the Warriors had something to prove when they played Exeter United.  That is just what they did, with fire in their hearts they came out fighting and ran in nine tries to one on a Sunday afternoon where even the weather had had enough by the end of the match.

On several occasions the match flared up and Exeter were awarded two yellow cards for their troubles with Chris Lowrie picking up one for the Warriors.  The home side were altogether better controlled and had the run of the ball.

James Owen taking on the captain's role scored four of the tries himself with Tom Arscott running in two and the rest split between Tim Mathias, Chris Lowrie and Darren Ritchie.

Within three minutes it looked as though the Warriors had scored when the pack went over the line but the ref adjudged the ball to have been held up.

It took a full 8 minutes for the first try to be recorded after warriors spent several minutes attempting to get across the line as a pack before Tim Mathias broke off the back to fall on the ball.

The backs not wanting to be left out a move that started  with Tom Arscott catching the ball in his own 22 and running out on the right the ball was passed along the line for Darren Ritchie to cross the line on the left hand side and running around to place the ball under the posts.

Back came the forwards to show that they too could score a running try with Federico involved before the ball ended with Chris Lowrie forcing his way over by the corner post which was converted by Dan Hawkes from the left hand touch line.

On the half hour after the first of the two Exeter yellow cards were shown, the catch and drive move from the throw in allowed James Owen to score his first try of the afternoon. With the conversion by Dan Hawkes brings the score to 26-0.

As we approached the half time whistle Exeter scored their only points of the game with a converted try under the posts. After ten metres were awarded for decent Dan Hawkes took the opportunity to kick three points to bring the half time score to 29 - 7.

Within 5 minutes of the second half Dan had two further opportunities to put points on the board with his boot but was unsuccessful on both occasions. The first from a penalty and the second from a driving maul with captain James Owen on top of the ball.

The physical side of Exeter came to the fore and eventually two yellow cards were shown one to Exeter and the other to Chris Lowrie after a ruckus on the ground. But Warriors came out on top as the penalty was awarded to them and after kicking for touch the catch and drive move gave James his hat trick.

With a typical backs running move Tom Arscott took advantage by running in a try on the right. Followed shortly after by James' forth and final try on the right.

The scoring was not over yet and the final points of the match were awarded to Tom Arscott for a try and a conversion by Dan Hawkes.

The Warriors obviously saw that they had something to prove after Albion had lost by 4 points the day before and they certainly stepped upto the mark as this was not ever going to be an easy fixture.  A comment overheard in the grandstand was "Tom Arscott had more aggression than the whole team at Sandy Park."

Mike Hayes, brother of Tom, played his first match in an Albion shirt. He is not the fastest on the pitch, but then name me any props that are, but played the full 80 minutes and seemed to hold up well.