Devon one North and East

North Tawton 87

Plympton Victoria 0

FROM the start North Tawton were on the offensive, drawing Plympton Victoria offside and gaining penalties. The second of these gave David Fewings his first points of the match with a kick from 25 metres.

A good spell of 15-man rugby brought Tawton back on the attack. A well-timed missed pass from Fewings put full back Bill Sharp through for his debut try for the club, to make it 8-0. Shortly after the restart a break by Rob North at inside centre opened up the defence and the feed to supporting flanker Paul Turner saw him side-step the last defender for a try.

It was Turner who was in the right place again for the next try, started by a break off the back of a scrum by number eight Steve King. Some good handling going down the narrow side ended with a pass inside to Turner to score his second to make it 18-0.

From a scrum on Tawton's 22 metre line the ball was chipped ahead and picked up by centre North. He fed it back to his scrum half Alex Dennis who had the pace to outrun the defence and score his first try, converted by Fewings.

The North Tawton pack dominated the set scrums, pushing Plympton back at a rate of knots and disrupting what ball they were getting. From a lineout the ball was fed out along the three-quarter line. David Fewings collected a pass, coming in at pace, and broke the defensive line to go in under the posts for the try, which was duly converted. Further tries from Alex Dennis and a gem from hooker Alfie May — both converted by Fewings — made it a half time score of 44-0.

The opening score of the second half was also down to May as he broke away from a maul and made it to the Plympton 22 metre line before passing out to Turner, to touch down. Shortly after this a Tawton attack broke down in the Plympton half, but they recovered the advantage and the ball was moved out to the left wing where full back Sharp was on hand to complete the run for his second try. Fewings converted for 58-0.

The next two tries for Tawton came from the strong running of fly half Simon Quick. The Plympton defensive line was creaking as Tawton continued their pressure. Another break from about half way, this time by Fewings at outside centre, led to a try which he converted.

The final tries came appropriately for the scrum, capitalising on their dominance over a tiring Plympton pack. The first came for second row Ian Perrott, the second to number eight Steve King.