IVYBRIDGE RFC 1st XV coach Steve Atkinson said the 24-22 South West Two win over Tiverton showed how far the team had come in the past 12 months.

When Atkinson took over last season, the Bridge had just been relegated from South West One and were still finding their feet in the next division down.

Tiverton won two close games against Ivybridge last season: 27-23 at home, 41-38 away. This time the dice rolled in the Bridge’s favour.

Atkinson said turning a narrow defeat into a narrow win is a definite sign of progress.

“It got a bit scrappy towards the end but I think our lads having had another year of senior rugby under their belts, managed to hold on and get the win,” said Atkinson.

“If it was this time last year, we might have crumbled a bit, which shows how far the lads have come.”

Atkinson said something that had not changed was the strengths and weaknesses footprint of the game.

“Tiverton came to slow us right down and try and keep the game as tight as possible as I think they knew we want to play expansive rugby,” said Atkinson.

“We managed to get a few quick rucks though and they couldn’t handle the pace of our young lads. Same again in both games last year.”

A feature of this season’s first encounter was Tiverton’s high penalty count, which cost them field position.

“We gave away too many penalties and Harry Newman-Wild, who is a good kicker, punished us,” said Tiverton coach Jon Hill.

“In the second half we must have given away eight or nine penalties, which cost us around 400 metres of field position.”

Ivybridge were 10-7 down at half time, Newman-Wild converting a Jack Skinner try, but levelled with a penalty two minutes after the break and were never behind again in the match.

Adam Lilley and Angus Harris claimed a try each for Ivybridge, both converted by Newman-Wild.

Ivybridge are away to Wadebridge this Saturday.