Devon 2 league

North Tawton 21

Ilfracombe 13

ONCE again North Tawton's Centenary pitch was brought into use when all others were unplayable, albeit with a few trees down due to the storm.

Ilfracombe started well, putting Tawton under pressure close to their try line. A fumbled ball in defence by Tawton gave Ilfracombe's scrum half Rob Overney an easy run through for the first try; this was not converted.

Ilfracombe's big pack was causing problems for North Tawton, who conceded a penalty in front of the posts allowing Chris Mitchell to convert the kick and put Ilfracombe 8-0 in the lead.

Tawton responded positively and a good break by centre Craig Dennis made ground. The pack took the ball forward and piled over the line with James Henshaw at the bottom grounding the ball; unfortunately for North Tawton, the referee however, did not give the claimed try.

After several phases of play Tawton opted to take a penalty kick to goal which unluckily missed, so they came away with nothing for their efforts.

It was now North Tawton's turn to soak up the pressure as Ilfracombe's second row broke through the stretched defence and took his team back into an attack. From a ruck inside Tawton's 22 metre area Ilfracombe's number eight and captain Jay O'Beirne broke off and went through to score a try. This was not converted but left Ilfracombe with a 13-0 lead.

North Tawton came back well and from a lineout about 15 metres out from Ilfracombe's try line they set up a drive which took them diagonally towards the posts and over the line for second row Arron Hart to touch down for a try; the conversion by Jamie Stevens took North Tawton onto the score sheet.

Just before the break a neat interception by full back Will Lethbridge halted an Ilfracombe attack and he sprinted the length of the pitch to score an excellent individual try. The conversion was missed but North Tawton were now only one point behind Ilfracombe at the half time whistle.

Whereas earlier it looked as though Ilfracombe's big pack was going to dominate proceedings, now in the second half the Tawton squad was coming into its own and starting to take the game to the opposition.

They soon earned a penalty decision against Ilfracombe which Stevens converted. This prompted a sustained series of attacks by Ilfracombe against which Tawton defended well, aided by some good clearance kicks by Lethbridge and astute tactical kicking by Stevens.

In the last stages of the match Tawton tightened their grip on the game and two more penalty kicks by Stevens added six points to their score —the second kick going over as the final whistle blew.