East Devon Eagles soared to victory with 11 tries and lifted the silverware in the South West Challenge Cup Final against Exeter Centurions at Brickfields in Plymouth.

 

For the first 10 minutes there was pressure from both sides and unfortunately a clash of heads saw Eagles Paul Flower leave the field with a badly cut eye needing stitches.

 

The Eagles were on the scoresheet with 4 tries, 3 of which were converted by Rich Cadywould in the next 15 minutes.  Team play towards the line saw player/coach Tony Emmins touchdown, quickly followed by a Mark Wathes try after he made repeated hand offs up the field.  From the kick off, good play up the park saw skipper Dave McCarthy offload to Olly Turton who sprinted up the touchline to score and when Sean Lovett made a break up the far side, Wathes was on hand to dive over under the posts for his 2nd try of the game.

 

Towards half time, Jack Downie stole the ball and scored a superb individual try weaving his way up the park to touchdown under the posts, Cadywould adding the extras and after putting pressure on the Exeter line, Jascha Saeck offloaded to Cadywould for him to run in under the uprights, kicking his own conversion and adding a penalty to give a half time score Eagles 36 Centurions 0

 

4 minutes into the second half saw Jack Westlake on a burst, and a pass out wide to Shaun Fayter gave him the opportunity to add to the Eagles tally in the far corner, but the difficult conversion failed.

On 10 minutes, Nathan Budd took the ball upfield, on to Lawrence Giles and Westlake who offloaded to Saeck who jinked his way in under the sticks for a converted try.

 

However, a lack of Eagles concentration saw Centurions on the scoresheet with 2 converted tries from Brent Ryan and Dave Walters, Ryan converting both.

 

The Eagles shook themselves back to form and 5 minutes later, after good interpassing along the line, Emmins was on hand to receive the ball and crash through the defence to touchdown by the corner flag for his 2nd try, Cadywould converting.

 

From the kick off, Fayter broke up through the Exeter defence and offloaded to Budd who sprinted down the touchline, shaking off the defence to score in the corner, Cadywould again adding the extras.

Following a quick tap penalty the ball was spun out to Downie who ducked and dived his way through to touchdown in the corner for his 2nd try but the conversion went wide.

 

With minutes to go on the clock and a certain victory, the Eagles allowed Centurions a consolation try by Brian Logan, converted by Ryan but on the final whistle a jubilant Eagles side had the win they deserved by 62 points to 18 points and the silverware was once again back with the Eagles.

 

Player coach Tony Emmins and skipper Dave McCarthy are immensely proud of all the players who showed their skill and determination throughout the game.

 

Next Saturday sees the Eagles in action at the Imperial Ground Exmouth against Devon Sharks in the Grand Final kick off 2.30pm , the winners going on to face the winners of the London & South league in the National Quarter Final on 23rd August.

 
Eagles Tries:  Emmins (2), Wathes (2), Turton (1), Downie (2), Cadywould (1)  Fayter (1), Saeck (1) Budd (1)

 
Conversions:  Cadywould  (8) Penalty Goal (1)

 

Centurions Tries:  Ryan (1) Walters (1) Logan (1)

 
Conversions:  Ryan (3)