Rugby returned to Raleigh Park this weekend in the first pre-season game of the 2021/22 season.

It's been 18 long months since the Withies took on Ilfracombe at Bicton.

Little did we know how long it would be until the return… 532 days later, something close to normality has begun to shine through as the boys took to the pitch once again and welcomed Exeter Athletic to Raleigh Park for the first of this year's pre-season fixtures.

With the sun shining and the sound of excitement buzzing around the park, the two teams took to the field.

The early exchanges of the game were well balanced with both sides enjoying good amounts of ball in the middle third of the pitch. The status quo remained throughout the quarter as both sets of players got back into their match rhythm.

As the second quarter got underway, Exeter were the team to make the most of their chances as a dropped Withy line out inside our 22' was collected and taken through the phases and eventually taken over the line to break the deadlock for an unconverted score on 24 minutes.

Athletic, who were clearly fired up by the score, enjoyed the lion's share of the possession and territory for the next ten minutes, earning themselves a couple of penalties along the way.

As the half hour mark passed, the Withy boys were caught holding onto the ball for too long inside their 22' and were made to pay as the resulting penalty was taken well and Exeter scored their second try to the side of the posts. The conversion was taken well to give Exeter Athletic a 0-12 lead.

However, this score line wasn't to last long as less than two minutes later, the Withies got onto the scoreboard thanks to a well-timed break by Matt Brambles, who touched down to close the gap back to 7 points and bring the half time score to 5-12.

Immediately from the restart, the Withies had their turn to capitalise on errors as a knocked-on ball is taken back by Withy who ship the ball out across the field to the awaiting hands of the speedy Ben Dawson who turned on the pace down the right hand wing, beating the defenders and scored under the posts. With the conversion from Will Cooper sailing though the posts, the scores were level at 12 points apiece.

With the scores level, play settled down once again and possession was shared between the two sides in the middle third.

As the third quarter progressed, the strong numbers on the Withy bench were starting to show and the boys in green and black began to build up some momentum; this was until a long pass was intercepted by Athletic's outside centre who showed a clean pair of heels and ran half the pitch to score under the posts for a converted try to regain the seven point lead.

The final quarter, however, was definitely decided by the bench as the next three scores were all Withy. A well-timed kick chase and volley by Sam Warren was perfectly executed as he picked up his own volleyed chip to score under the posts on 65min, shortly followed by another cat-and-mouse chase between Paddy Haddad and Max Cooke (who had donned on a pink shirt and helped out Exeter's bench).

Max thought he'd managed a try saving tackle, but a huge outstretched arm from Paddy was enough to dot the ball over the line, allowing Aaron Lee to kick the extras once again and put the boys 14pts up.

Exeter hadn't finished though, as a penalty was kicked to touch with good distance being made. The line out was won well and several phases of recycled ball was enough to work themselves over the line.

It was Withy that would have the final say though 5 minutes later, they too made good distance from a penalty kick to touch.

The line-out was almost stolen but knocked back into the hands of Aidan Clarke who put power behind his legs to bring a couple Exeter defenders with him as we twisted over the line to score the final points of the day, bringing the final score to 38-26.

The boys will take a number of positives from the game and also a few things to work on as they look forward to next weekend when both the 1st and 2nd XVs head up to Mid-Devon to play South Molton. Kick off is at 12:30pm for the 2nd XV and 2:30pm for the 1st XV.

Finally, a quick thank you to all those that come down to support and cheer on the boys this weekend, you all made it a spectacular atmosphere and it really was great to see Raleigh Park back at it's best! We hope a large number of you can join us next weekend!