Both sides marked the recent passing of Derek Howell, who was an Old Cryptians stalwart and was one of the founder members of the side when they moved into the clubhouse in Tuffley Avenue, with a well-respected minute’s silence.

Once the game commenced Cryptians looked the more likely to score, with their backs seemingly able to cut through with ease. Konah Dyer at ten looked assured and marshalled his back line impeccably. But it was a mistake by Richians at the front of a five yard lineout which created the first score. The ball was knocked back untidily allowing hooker Karl Saunders to gather the loose ball and drive over from a short distance. Dyer made the difficult conversion look easy from the touchline.

This was quickly followed by a fine try by winger Matt Dyke who was was put into space by centre Dom Bifulco and was able to fend off two cover tackles to power over for a second try, also converted by Dyer.

At this stage the signs looked ominous for Richians but their forwards took control for the next 25 minutes of the first half. This was rewarded with a great try at the end of the first half which was converted to make the half time score 7-14.

Cryptians then took back control at the start of the second half, after some stern words from skipper and scrum-half Jerome Vidgen. Their giant lock Josh Gittings was on the end of a fine offload from winger Ross Wayman.

This was then followed by a fortunate try from replacement Ross Stevens who charged down a kick and was able to gather the ball and scamper in from 25 yards. Dyer converted. Gittings was then replaced by Sean Norton and Rob Bendall came onto the wing for the final 20 minutes of play.

Richians looked dead on their feet, but again came back into the game with two tries of their own, but to the relief of the large travelling Cryptians contingent, hooker Saunders crashed through to score under the posts after some fine work from the veteran prop Gareth Morris and the influential second Row Mike Derbidge. Again it was converted and at 19-33 the game looked all but over.

But with the introduction of heavyweight Ben Slatter into the Richian side they once again looked capable of pulling the game back. He was able to slice through the Crypt defence to make the game interesting at 24-33 with minutes to go.

But the final act of the game was left to outstanding centre Terence Babarinsa, who linked well with replacements Ben Gibbs, who came on for Matt Russell, and Ben Kline to score from a move which started on their own half. With the kick being missed the match was finished with a well-deserved 24-38 victory.

Special mention to Bret Bennett who had to leave the game after 65 mins with a knee injury.

Although the man of the match was awarded to Dom Bifulco, both Dan Annfield and props Gav Butler and Dan Hayes ran him a close second.

Paul Vidgen