Devon two

Plympton Victoria 3

North Tawton 87

BEFORE the start of this final league match of the season a minute's silence was observed for the passing of Martin Hough, a former player and coach for Plympton Victoria.

Plympton Victoria made a good start and early in the match were awarded a penalty about 20 metres out. Their number eight Marc Leighton converted the points.

The home side kept up the pressure on North Tawton with a scrum 5 metres out, but Tawton weathered the onslaught and cleared their line following a penalty kick. This led to a break-away try by Tawton's centre Craig Dennis, who touched down leaving an easy kick for the conversion by fly half Jamie Stevens.

Plympton came back strongly and following a penalty and subsequent line out had Tawton's line under sustained pressure again. Tawton held out once more and a break by Stevens saw the ball shipped to left wing Ben Sharp, who ran round the defence to touch down under the posts; Stevens added the two points, taking the score to 14-3 to North Tawton.

Full back Will Lethbridge for the visitors had a chance to increase the score but his final pass went forward and the opportunity was lost. Tawton started to dominate the match after a slow start and the next try came off the back of a well-controlled scrum. The ball was picked up by number eight Simon Quick and he used the support players to his right as decoys and stepped back inside to go in for a try; the conversion was missed to make it 19-3.

A good piece of build-up play involving most of the team in the inter-passing led to a second try for Craig Dennis; the conversion by Stevens took the score to 26-3.

He converted the last two tries of the half as well, the first coming from a good scrum followed by some neat passing between Luke Dennis and his brother Craig in the centre partnership, the latter touching down for his hat trick of tries. The final one went to winger Ben Sharp when again good team support play opened up the Plympton defence. The half time score was 40-3 to North Tawton.

North Tawton started the second half with more purpose and from a scrum on the Plympton 10 metre line the ball was moved across the field for Craig Dennis to score the try out wide; a good conversion from Stevens confirmed another seven points. They could have extended their lead further shortly afterwards when Tom Davis on the right wing went over for a try only for it to be disallowed because of a forward pass in the build up play.

Although Plympton Victoria kept up their resistance they were no match for North Tawton in the final stages of the match. The visitors ran in six more tries, two for Craig Dennis taking him to a double hat trick for the match, one for captain Bill Sharp and three for Will Lethbridge. His last try saw him ghost through the defence and wrong footing the tacklers. Jamie Stevens converted five of these to give a final score of 87-3 to North Tawton.

Man of the match went to flanker Rob McBain for his tireless work in the loose and in the line out.

North Tawton are pleased with their league performance this season and with the current squad including some new young players are looking forward to next season with anticipation.