Devon Cup

Tavistock U15s 37

Okehampton U15s 7

ON a heavy and muddy pitch, Tavistock faced Okehampton in the quarter finals of the Devon cup.

From the kick-off the home team came at Okehampton with drive and determination, pressurising through testing kicking and strong forward play.

Tavistock started well with a chip and go try scored by Connor Baker. Then a hard fought, pick and go, try scored by the hooker, Jason Blake, gave Tavistock a 10-0 lead. However, Okehampton came back with a great run through the centre to score under the posts after 20 minutes.

George Dickinson found space on the wing to break through and score a great try, which Ewan Northcott converted to make it 7-10. Tavistock did not sit back and a strong run, and dummy pass by Jason fed Connor to take the team to five yards from the try line. The Oke throw in was won by Archie Allen who drove forward to score. It had been a close first half, with the score at 15-7.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, however, Oke were on top, camped in Tavistock territory, with both Tom Stevens and Dan Turney working really hard. However, once the home side broke out and scored again Okehampton were never really in it.

Tavistock started to pull away with the forwards of Jude White, Laurence Stewart, Toby Teague and Peter Bull beginning to dominate. Jack Smyly played in an unfamiliar position of scrum half but showed great composure and built a good understanding with his number ten of Luke Lewandowski.

It was Tavistock skipper Jon Lord who scored a well worked try, after a number of phases within sight of the Okehampton line. Another great run by Connor saw him get his second try and it was a first try of the season for Robin Bickley which took Tavistock to 30 points.

It was Josh Davies who chased down the ball in the last minutes of the game and, showing great fitness and strength, outpaced the Oke defence to dive on the ball under the posts to give Zac Gorton a straightforward conversion.

Although Tavistock pulled away in the second half the Okehampton team never dropped their heads and battled to the end.

This was, however, a superb team effort and win for Tavistock who now progress to the semi finals of the Devon cup against Cullompton.