The Services club team against Plymstock was played as four twenty-minute periods and also started evenly but with Plymstock showing marginally the better, and when the game stopped for subs and water after the first twenty-minute period it was Plymstock who would have felt most pleased having held out Services best efforts.
Maybe the home team were trying too hard and in doing so gave away more penalties than the management would have liked.
Plymstock were rewarded for their stout efforts with a try from 5 yards out and not far from the post by Dave Byng, Louis Barnaby had a simple conversion to take the visitors to a 0~7 lead.
By halftime Services still had not cracked the Plymstock defence and the score remained at 0~7.
The second half and fortunes changed, Services sprung into life and I guess Plymstock had been doing a lot of defending, and just before the last twenty-minute period the score had changed completely. Services were now in the lead by 19~7. Bryan ‘Yoda’ Milford had come very close to scoring on a couple of occasions during this spell of scoring from what I could see from the far side of the pitch.
Matt Opie had scored out wide on the grandstand side fifteen minutes into the second half, Keir Murphy had a strong run from a little inside their twenty-two and it took four defenders to stop him a foot short of the line and followed up by Andy Pond who just got over the line close to the posts, then Robert Tagi scored also on the grandstand side. Alex Mawdsley adding two conversions.
The final Services points came from Tomas Kersei who touched down halfway in on the grandstand side with Alex Mawdsley adding the conversion to make it 26 ~ 10.
Services had a couple more attacks getting close to scoring that Plymstock defended well and then managed to push Services back to halfway, from that Plymstock had the last word with a try on the last play of the game at the hands of Tom Richards who made a good solo run from about our twenty-two-yard line, with the conversion missed this left the score at the final whistle at 26 ~ 12.

The return to rugby at The Rectory was strange, spectators were not allowed, the game was very different with no scums or mauls and the whole feeling of the ground changed with the loss of the grandstand.
No one is sure if the missing grandstand will allow more breeze over the ground for the kickers to have to deal with or that there will be less swirl of air to disturb the flight of the ball. Certainly spectators on that side had to stand in a chilly breeze in the second half.
Whatever that might be the visual feel of the ground makes you wonder if it is an away game.
There was some sort of comfort in the old grandstand, if you nodded off in the sun on the far side when you woke up you immediately knew where you were. I am sure we will get used to it.