WELLINGTON RFC U16s, beaten by two points at home by Crediton only two weeks earlier, reversed the result in Devon, winning 26-24.

Crediton opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a converted try in the corner. Wellington then pushed into the Crediton 22 and after a period of sustained pressure Jonah Richardson crashed over. But in the strong swirling wind the kick was missed.

Crediton then scored another converted try to make it 14 – 5.With half an hour played Crediton had a scrum 5m from Wellington’s line. Wellington had done well in the scrums against Creditons much heavier pack but Crediton had started to get the upper hand in the last couple.

However, a massive effort from all 8 forwards won a penalty as the front row of Jack Besley, Aaron Zhang and James Winter proved they weren’t in the mood to be pushed around. Then just before half-time the Crediton 10 again put in an 80m kick, pushing Wellington back. Bailey Lee chased back hard to win the ball but a penalty soon after put Wellington back on their own line.

It was crucial they held out and a great 50m break but no 9 Brock Vallance ensured they did. At half time it was 14 – 5 to Crediton

Richardson found a hole in the defence 25m out and with an acrobatic dive scored a great try, converted by Charlie Taylor to make it 14-12.

Jack Besley and Will Barnes were putting in some great runs up front with Bailey Lee and Jonah Kyle doing the same out behind .Wellington then took the lead for the first time with a good try from Brock Vallance converted by Charlie Taylor.

Crediton hit back to level it at 19 all and as the game headed towards full time a draw looked likely. But with a minute to go Wellington had other ideas and took a quick tap penalty on their own 22. Great hands by Richardson, Sanchez-Lane and Kyle found Archie Austin in a bit of space. He flew up the touch line to score a great try under the posts. Converted by Taylor and with seconds left that looked like game over.

Wellington fielded the restart well and made their way to Crediton’s 22 with some good driving runs. The ref signalled time was up and Wellington just had to kick the ball off the pitch. But no one on the pitch seemed to hear the ref and Wellington kept playing for another 3 or 4 phases. They then gave away 5 penalties in a row and Crediton made their way up the pitch and scored left of the posts. However the conversion was missed in the swirling wind. Player of the week was Archie Austin.