Torrington 20

North Tawton 18

THE first half of this non-league match was a somewhat desultory affair with infringements by both sides.

There were some bright spots such as when Tawton's centre Cameron Rickerby intervened in Torrington's line and made good ground, leading to a scrum on Torrington's 10 metre line which Tawton took well. Soon after Jo Madden took a lineout ball and wrong-footed the home side, leading to a penalty kick which took Tawton well into Torrington territory.

After 30 minutes the deadlock was broken when Torrington's fly half Nick Evans slotted a penalty kick resulting from a yellow card for dissent by Tawton's scrum half Jack Phare. North Tawton levelled shortly afterwards with a good kick by fly half Jamie Stevens following an obstruction by Torrington.

A well-placed kick upfield by Tawton's Stevens took them back into the attack as half time approached. A penalty was conceded by Torrington in the ensuing play which Stevens converted from the 22 metre line to give North Tawton a slender advantage at the break.

North Tawton made some changes in the second half to give their substitutes a run out. A good kick off led to a ruck on the Torrington 22 metre line from which the ball was fed to Rob North who made an initial break; he was supported by Mike Young and Will Lethbridge, who timed his run from full back perfectly to break the line for a try. Stevens added the conversion to put North Tawton 13-3 ahead.

The next try started well inside Tawton's half with some neat interplay between the North brothers Rob and Andrew, running at wide receiver on the right wing, and breaking out of defence. Bill Sharp, now at scrum half, collected a loose pass and sprinted over for a try. The conversion went wide but Tawton were now 18-3 up.

This prompted a spell of better play by Torrington and only good defence by Rob North and a clearance kick by Lethbridge kept them out. However shortly after Tawton conceded a penalty in front of the posts and Torrington took the tap-and-go option giving hooker Gavin Mitchell the ball to charge through for a try. The conversion by Evans took them to 18-10 behind Tawton.

Torrington kept up the pressure and from a scrum five metres out their number eight Conor Kendrew forced his way over for a try; the conversion was missed but Torrington were now only five points adrift.

Late in the second half Torrington finally exerted the dominance their position in a league higher than North Tawton suggested. The winning score came from a scrum 10 metres from Tawton's line when the ball went loose from Tawton's heel and a pass out wide to left wing George Ward gave him space to go over for a try and edge Torrington into a two point lead.

North Tawton came back strongly but they were so fired up they gave away too many penalties and just could not find the last vital score.