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Honiton RFC are the pride of Devon - indeed the pride of West Country rugby after they bagged a thrilling 29-27 win over North Allerton in the final of the RFU Senior Vase played at Twickenham. It surely is every young Honiton rugby player’s dream now to pull on that Honiton jersey and run out at Twickenham!
Speaking ahead of the game, long standing Club President Dave Todd could only speak of his pride in the small club. “Pride. Pride for Honiton, for them, for the town. That's my dominant feeling, just complete pride. We're on a crest of a wave. That's going to be the pinnacle, the culmination of rugby life for Honiton. That's the biggest thing that Honiton has seen I think.”
Like all good clubs the focus in Honiton is on development and growing the grassroots and building from the bottom up.
“We want to keep our junior side going because they're the ones that feed the seniors. They're the heart of the club really. The part of the club that keeps the seniors going. We do struggle sometimes to field all the teams in all the age groups. That's one of the things we strive to achieve, a good, strong junior section.”
Honiton RFC certainly are a community club with age group teams from the age of 7 all the way up to our 2 senior teams. The community spirit was never more evident than when eight busloads of Ton supporters set off for Twickenham to support the First XV in the Senior Vase Final against North Allerton.
The Lacemen had led 12-10 at half-time, and were ahead again late in the second half, but, with just nine minutes to go they were behind by eight points, 27-19 and staring defeat in the face. The last ten minutes of the game however belonged to Tom Steer who converted a penalty to bring the margin back to six. He followed that up with a try which meant he then had the opportunity to win the game with if he converted the resulting kick at goal. And boy did Tom deliver, steering the ball over the cross bar to give the Lacemen a two point lead 29-22. As the club’s own report says, the final whistle was met with “ lots of tears but for them it was of joy, relief and the reality of what they had achieved.”
Player Coach Nathan Hannay told their local paper the Midweek Herald: “At 10-0 we were clearly looking a little nervous as yet again we had made something of a slow start. However, all season long when we have suffered similar slow starts this team has shown great character to overcome adversity and they did it again.”
On a remarkable win and a fantastic season, O’Neills are proud to partner Honiton and join with all the supporters in saying well done The Ton.