Promotion play-off

Towcestrians 20,

Ivybridge 25

It was a good, old-fashioned nail-biter, but Ivy­bridge eventually won their promotion play-off to book their spot in National League Three South West thanks to an extra-time try from Adam Bradley writes Tim Leigh.

This result means Ivy­bridge will next season be plying their trade with New­ton Abbot and Brixham, among others, in step five of the rugby pyramid, and en­sured their stay in South West One lasted all of a season.

The achievement is all the more impressive given the majority of the side are home-grown players; Jon Morgan, Matt Finn, Dom Loomes, George Wilson, Ben Watts, Matt Grieveson, Lewis Paterson, Billy Pinkus, George de Mendonca, Tom Scoles, Adam Bradley and Toby Evans have all come through the club's junior section.

One can also count Mike Cox because he played through the club's junior section, went away for a time and came back.

This is something the club and its supporters can all be proud of and has also allowed the Bridge not to spend any money on players, thus ensuring a stable platform for success for what is a traditional grassroots club reaping the success from the effort it sows.

Crucially given they were away from home, Ivybridge took the lead through a Matt Grieveson penalty with quarter of an hour gone and never surrendered it, though things were certainly getting tighter as the game wore on...

Second row George Wilson, who has been tireless all season, was on hand once again to dot the ball down following a catch and drive move with 20 minutes gone, fly-half Grieveson adding the extra two points with a fine touchline conversion.

This gave the visitors a very handy 10-0 lead, but things got even better on half an hour when centre Lewis Paterson took the ball into contact and got a try-making offload to flanker Alex Hall, who went over.

Grieveson missed the conversion, but at 15-0 Ivybridge were firmly in the box seat.

Towcestrians got back into it just before the half-time whistle, going over in the corner to give themselves hope and make the score 5-15 at the break.

The second half saw the Bridge take their advantage to 15 points once again as captain Mike Cox was in the right place to finish off a pushover try, but the home side refused to buckle and again fought back.

They scored straight from the restart to reduce the deficit to 10-20, before going over again midway through the half to get back to just three behind at 17-20.

With the momentum having swung firmly to the home side, they levelled matters with a penalty with five minutes left on the clock.

Ivybridge, though, have come a long way together and were not about to let this match escape them.

A turnover inside their own 22 with 90 seconds on the clock saw hooker Jay Geraty take the ball forward before finding Grieveson on the overlap.

He made good ground before delivering the killer pass to the supporting Adam Bradley to ensure it was two promotions in two for this youthful Ivybridge side who are such a great advert for the sport.

The conversion was missed but it mattered little as Ivybridge took the restart and wound down the clock so the well-deserved celebrations could begin.