CULLOMPTON may have been beaten 53-7 by Newton Abbot in the semi-finals of the Devon Senior Cup on Saturday.

But at least the result was not as bad as the 73-5 defeat inflicted in the late 90s when the teams were playing at the same level.

On that occasion the Newton Abbot pack was so strong they were able to deploy the flankers in the backs’ line when scrummaging was permissible in the rules at that time.

Nowadays Newton Abbot sit comfortably in the top half of the league above Cullompton – National 3 (SW). Consequently the score was not a surprise but the result does not tell the whole story as there were areas of parity between the sides.

The visitors’ strong backs division quickly took them into an early lead with a chip and chase into the corner.

Cully fly-half Adam Pearce then narrowly missed a difficult penalty after a high tackle on winger Paul Baker before Newton Abbot’s backs again exploited poor Cully tackling and their own superior pace for centre Kyle Brown to cross the line. Full-back Will Castleton converted on this occasion for a 12-0 lead.

The class of the visitors’ backs was not however matched by their forwards and all the play for the next 15 minutes was in their half.

Cully’s new half-back pairing of Tim Edworthy and Matt Garner looked to be settling in and the well-orchestrated period of possession only came to an end when Garner, who had been kicking well, unluckily hit the corner flag with a grubber kick hoping to take advantage of the opposition line-out which had been as shaky as Cully’s to this point.

Newton Abbot took play back into the Cully half from the scrum back and Castleton cashed in a penalty after Cully strayed offside to stretch the lead to 15-0.

Cullompton immediately resumed their occupation of opposition territory. The restart was kicked long, a good chase saw play settle on the Newton Abbott 22, a solid tackle by Baker turned over the ball and the defenders infringed in their efforts to regain possession.

The penalty was taken as a scrum just outside the 22 and Chris Griffiths, Garner, Chris Grant and Edworthy all made ground before Garner popped up in the line again and was high tackled giving away the penalty which he kicked for lineout deep in the Newton Abbott 22.

The Cully line-out came good at the right moment with Grant picking out lock Matt Handford, held high in the line.

Dennis joined the front row at the business end of the maul and they battered their way to the line entrusting young flanker Andrew Hayball with the ball carrying duties at the rear.

Hayball, who had been having his best first team game yet, bided his time, fended off the illegal Newton Abbot side entrants and picked his moment like an old pro to peel off and touch down for his well deserved maiden try.

Cully managed to maintain occupation of opposition territory for a further five minutes with the score at 7-15, Pearce having converted.

But in the four minutes before the break Newton Abbot scored twice and the visitors gradually eased away in the second period.

Tomorrow Cully visit Thornbury (2.15pm).