Cockles clinch it at death through Wathes

■By HANNAH GREGORY

Exmouth…32

Barnes…25

A LAST-MINUTE Mark Wathes try gave Exmouth a vital bonus point victory.

Earlier, Barnes had capitalised on a number of Exmouth errors to score three tries in a ten-minute spell and take a 20-11 lead at half-time.

Tries by Ed Aulterac, Fraser Carlisle and Gareth Williams-Davies were supplemented by the boot of Tom O’Toole.

For the Cockles, fly-half George Meadows kicked two early penalties and centre Tom Bedford scored a try just before half-time.

In the second half, it was almost one-way traffic with the Cockles dominating the scrum and broken play, as well as field position.

Prop Isaac Dalton scored from close range after numerous forward drives, before winger Dave Bargent scored wide out after a series of phases.

Impressive fly-half Meadows converted both to build a 25-20 lead going into the last ten minutes. Barnes were lively on the counter attack and dangerous off turnover ball.

TEAMS

EXMOUTH: Rice, Bargent, Bedford, Wathes, Downie, Meadows, Ryan, Brown, Taylor, Dalton, Richards, Fahy, Kelly, Harris, Swain

Replacements: Gibbings, Savage, Reynolds, Conway, Goldman

BARNES: O’Toole, Martey, Hersey, Butler, Carlisle, Williams-Davies, Franklin, Packham, Auterac, Milford- Scott, Hind, Crane, Steele, Scott, Crossland

Replacements: Galvin, Kopra, Smyth, Reeves, Coles

REFEREE: Shane Lewis

ATTENDANCE: 200

Star man

Mark Wathes – Exmouth

Their interplay was a key feature and they used this to get back into the game.

Exmouth’s Bargent was turned over a metre from the Barnes tryline when the game would have been won, only for Barnes to run the length of the field to score and look like claiming victory. But the Cockles showed superb team spirit and Wathes ran 40 metres to score the decider in this relegation battle, with Barnes settling for two bonus points.