Students one win away from title

ONE more win is what the University of Exeter need to win the South West Premier Division title after thrashing Okehampton 71-19 in their final home game.

Pacey wingman James Botterill bagged six tries to set a new divisional scoring record as the students put Okey to the sword.

Botterill has claimed 43 league tries this season, which shatters the record of 39 set seven years ago by Camborne’s Alex Ducker.

Richard Hodge, the University’s team manager, hopes Botterill has a few more tries in the locker for a must-win final game of the season.

“Although we are already promoted, we want to go up as champions,” said Hodge.

“Our last game is at Launceston this Saturday and we need three points to be sure of being champions.”

Okehampton did not help themselves by collecting three yellow cards in the second half and playing the final 10 minutes with 13 men.

Dan Fogerty, the Okehampton captain, knows getting on the wrong side of the referee can cause problems.

“We started well but, at the end of the day, we ran out of gas and the yellow cards only enhanced their advantage,” said Fogerty.

University of Exeter were already through to the final of the Devon Senior Cup before the latest round of fixtures and now know they will face Exmouth when they get there.

The Cockles defeated Ivybridge 43-25 in a league and cup double header on the Imperial Ground to work their passage to the final.

For an hour there was never seldom more than a score between the two teams but Exmouth pulled clear in the final quarter.

Nick Smith the director of rugby at Exmouth, said there was only one significant difference between the teams.

“In a fast-paced game we were quicker than they were when the ball went out wide,” said Smith.

Exmouth led 22-20 at the break thanks to tries from Danny Martin, Nick Headley and Lewis Gerin plus a clutch of kicks from Harry Ottaway.

Ollie Cave, Headley and finally Jake Inglis added tries after the break. Ottaway converted all three.

Brixham gave promotion-chasing Old Redclifians a scare before subsiding to a 29-26 defeat.

Jamie Hext scored two tries, J P Simonetti and Matt Crosscombe had one each and Joel Ashworth kicked three conversions.

Cornish All Blacks lost 22-18 at Drybrook, where they had a lot to do after going 17-0 down in the first 20 minutes.

Ian Goldsmith, the CAB coach, said: “Tight games boil down to key moments when teams execute when they have chances and we didn’t.”