Sat 17 Sep 2022
As Mike Tyson, once famously said 'Everyone has a plan, until you get punched on the nose' and the CABs punch on the nose was losing last week's stand out player and key playmaker, Glenn Coles, within two minutes of the start to a pretty serious elbow injury. Training all week had been in preparation of playing very much a territorial game and making the Brixham powerful front five turn and have to run back more often than they would have liked. Shortly after Coles departed (likely to be several weeks out), Dan Pearce slotted over a penalty after sustained pressure. The CABs were getting plenty of good ball off the lineout, which enabled them to play with good width and pace and also pin the Brixham back three in. However, a missed clearout gave Brixham a lineout penalty, about 30 and a miss-communication between the tail of the lineout and James Tucker enabled the Brixham 15 to be put away under the posts. The CABs hit back with another penalty and the game was very much in the balance, if anything the CABs had the edge in possession and lineout which was causing Brixham issues, with powerful running from Ben Humber and the back row of Charlie Tummon, Joe Stansfield and Brandon Rowley. However, one area where Brixham were gaining advantage was in the scrum and an attempt by Tom Sandercock to keep the ball in play, from a penalty to touch ended up with Brixham having a 5m scrum. The CABs pack held firm, but a crossfield kick from the Brixham 10 enabled the right winger to go in untouched. Brixham added one more try and the half finished 17-6. The key message at half-time was to keep possession in the right areas, as it was patently obvious that the Brixham pack were walking around the park for the last 6-7 minutes, and opportunities will come. Probably the key one came right after half-time, a penalty for late tackle on James Tucker and then a touch finder found the CABs 5m from Brixham's line, unfortunately the lineout wasn't executed, Brixham cleared to the 22m and then another missed lineout meant the danger (& opportunity to put pressure back on Brixham) had gone. As the second half progressed possession was drying up for the CABs at both lineout and scrum. Gaps were appearing, kicks were going straight into touch and at one point the CABs were reduced to 14 when Ryan Westren was penalised for a high, seat-belt style tackle. However, Brixham could only score one try in that power play. Westren redeemed himself with a walk-in try and the scoreboard read 22-11 with 15 to play. The CABs could sense an opening, however a couple of dropped balls meant that any opportunity was quickly snuffed out and Brixham were able to continue their pressure building. Unfortunately a last minute try put the gloss on the result for Brixham and left the CABs looking at a slightly chastening scoreline -after what promised so much in the first 30 minutes of the game.
One observation, of the league table, already indicates that the CABs have played two of the top three teams away from home already and with the exception of Camborne every team has lost one game already. Next week sees the CABs host local rivals, Okehampton, and with a bumper crowd expected it is sure to be real humdinger.
