WELLINGTON withstood a second-half fightback by Cullompton to gain an exciting 30-24 win in the first round of the Papa John's Cup at the Athletic Ground, writes Barry Knott.

Wellington, fielding a much-changed side following the previous week's poor showing against Burnham, played some fine attacking rugby in the first half on a brilliant, sunny day to deservedly lead 22-5 at the interval.

And they looked like going on to gain a comfortable victory with another five-pointer early in the second half. But that's when things started to go wrong and they began to pay for ill-discipline. In fact, it almost cost them the game.

Wellington's head coach Graham Dawe was naturally delighted with the result and said afterwards: "We threw in two or three youngsters and they put in a very good shift. We have some very promising youngsters.

"For once we took our chances - especially in the first half. And we could have scored two more tries in the opening half. I thought we defended very well late on. We were able to force errors in the tackle as Cullompton came at us.

"Alex Davey was also at his best with his kicking. It's so important to have a player like him in the side."

Wellington made a fine start to the game with Ben Hayman scoring an unconverted try. They began to get on top and were awarded a penalty try 17 minutes into the game after more pressure by the home side.

Wellington kept in control and Davey slotted over a penalty after 25 minutes to make it 15-0 against a decent looking Cullompton outfit.

However, the visitors were made to pay for a poor lineout and Wellington took advantage to score a try through Toby Redwood which Davey converted.

Now leading 22-0 Wellington were defending well but could not prevent Cullompton enjoying their first success with an unconverted try.

In comparison to the previous week, Wellington were certainly worth their 17-point lead at the interval after playing towards the clubhouse end. Their pack, in particularly, pushed their much bigger opponents back repeatedly during the game.

The dry conditions were definitely to Wellington's liking and George Hodgson, captaining the side in place of the injured Danny Lee, danced through his markers to score a try under the posts to extend his side's lead to 22 points early in the second half. The conversion from right in front of the posts was missed by Tom Owen.

But local derbies are never straight forward and Cullompton began to get the upper hand and scored two tries which were both converted to leave the visitors only eight points behind.

Wellington chose to kick a penalty through Davey from an attacking position to leave Cullompton needing two scores to win at 30-19.

With a lot of time added on Cullompton were still in with a chance of stealing the game and they scored another unconcerted try which brought the score to 30-24.

There was now the fear that Wellington might lose this match as they were not playing nearly as well as they did in the first half but they tackled tenaciously in the closing minutes to gain their second win over Cullompton at the Athletic Ground this year.

But this was not a game for the faint-hearted. . .

*Wellington's opponents in the second round will be Wadebridge Camels who have beaten Wellington twice in Regional Two South West this season. They beat Truro in the opening round. There is only one more round before the final is played at Twickenham.