Walking wounded miss out in cup tie

By arjones

TWO tries in the last 10 minutes knocked Bideford out of the Devon Intermediate Cup.

For an hour the Chiefs clung to a 3-0 lead, but, bruised and battered, they buckled in the closing stages at Tribute Cornwall/Devon rivals Crediton

Making five changes from the previous week's sixth straight win in the league, Bideford rested a few key players who were carrying knocks.

Their cause wasn't helped by another clutch of injuries during the match and sin-binnings for forwards Shaun Edwards and Harvey Brown either side of half-time.

Captain Andrew Mackenzie-Shapland, one of the walking wounded at full-time, said: "It was just a matter of cumulative pressure.

"Our tackle count was huge and that forced a lot of errors but you can't really absorb that much pressure.

"I thought we had done the bulk of the work but in the end they were just a bit too strong in the last 10 minutes."

Morris booted Bideford ahead but they were unable to add further points, Crediton scrambling the ball away when they did threaten the line.

At least Bideford didn't concede when Edwards and Brown were in the bin for handling in rucks and it looked as though they might sneak through to the semi-finals with the narrowest possible victory.

The weather was so bad that an hour into the match referee Richard Steggall was unable to tell the players apart and was considering abandoning the game — Bideford may wish he had, given the way it finished.

They had already used their replacements with players limping off, while Crediton were able to use theirs more tactically.

Young wing Tom Foan was soon into the action after his introduction from the bench, creating an overlap that was shut down by Biddy.

Foan pressured Bideford into a kick to touch from which Crediton won the line-out and spread the ball wide for wing Matt Shapland to go over.

In the last couple of minutes, with the hosts keeping the ball tight, flanker Greg Lewis got the ball down for the second try.

Despite the defeat, Bideford will have a semi-final to look forward to, in the Intermediate Plate against the losers of the quarter-final tie between South Molton and Honiton. Crediton meet the winners in the Cup semis.

And the two sides will be pitted against each other again at Blagdon on December 12 in the league.

"The pleasing thing about Saturday is that we've got to go there in a couple of weeks in the league and we haven't shown them our full hand," said Mackenzie-Shapland.

"We nearly won without a full deck and had a lot thrown at us with the injuries and sin-binnings."

Bideford host Torrington in the league on Saturday (2.30pm). Torrie's home game against Teignmouth was postponed for the second week running.