Tawton fell away after leading at half time

Devon One North and East League

NORTH TAWTON 15

TOTNES 34

NORTH Tawton made a good start to their third league match of the season when centre Simon Quick caught a mis-kick from the Totnes fly-half and made good ground into their 22 metre area.

Tawton kept up the pressure and forced a five metre scrum; Steve King picked up the ball off the back and slipped it to scrum-half Dave Fewings who cut through for a try. This he converted to give Tawton a 7-0 lead.

The scrum was working well and put the shove on the Totnes eight to disrupt their possession on several occasions. Another half chance came from a lineout take by James Henshaw, which set up a drive well into Totnes territory.

Nothing came of this, however, and an exchange of penalty kicks took Totnes back down to Tawton's 22 metre line.

The Totnes threes showed some elusive running and good lay-off passing to put Tawton's line under pressure and it was only some determined, last ditch tackling that kept them out, notably from Mike young, the Demon Tackler of Tawton Town.

Totnes had two tries disallowed for preceding infringements but finally they opened up the Tawton defence with a superb slicing run by their full-back Dan Jamman to score their first try.

The conversion by Chris Hooper levelled the score at seven apiece. North Tawton responded well with another good drive by the pack to drive Totnes off their ball.

A break by Tawton's right wing Tom Chisholm and a cut back to the inside led to a penalty chance for his side which Fewings duly slotted.

This left North Tawton with a narrow 10-7 lead at the half-time break.

Early in the second half Totnes pegged North Tawton back in their half and a three-quarter line move fed the ball out to centre Hooper, who squeezed in for a try out wide on the left.

The conversion was given, and Totnes moved in to a 14-10 lead.

A rather chaotic passage of play ensued, with both sides conceding penalties, until Totnes were able to make a break and the right wing Jake Orchard went over for a try, which was not converted.

Shortly after Totnes were awarded a penalty in kicking range and Hooper converted for another three points.

With the score at 22-10 to the visitors Tawton needed to reply to keep the game alive. From a penalty close to the Totnes line they made several attempts to force a way over, showing better determination than earlier in the match.

Finally it was centre Simon Quick who found a way through to score an important try.

The conversion failed however, making the score 15-22 to Totnes.

In the closing stages Tawton were not able to stage the comeback required and Totnes ran in two more tries from their impressive backs as North Tawton began to tire.

One of these was converted to give a final score of 34-15 to Totnes.

Graham King