EXETER ATHLETIC 10 - NORTH TAWTON 23

THE larger than normal travelling support group were expecting a tough tight game for the clash between Exeter Athletic and North Tawton and for the first 60 minutes that’s what they got!

It was two teams, first and second placed in the league, going at it hammer and tongs, end-to-end stuff.

They got the ball, they came forward with purpose, we got the ball we went forward with equal intensity if not more, both sides fully aware of the importance of the result of this match.

From an Exeter point of view the match was the chance to close the points gap and give them a real shot at finishing league winners with the promotion that goes with it and for North Tawton it was a chance to cement our position at the top and put our destiny in our own hands - win this and the gap becomes a lot more comfortable with regards to finishing top.

I said the first hour was tight, the home side taking an early try with a penalty for offside, Tawts going three down in five minutes.

The away side, it’s fair to say, were starting to look a bit shaky, a few dropped balls, etc not helping the Tawton cause, but bit-by-bit, helping the blood pressure of the away support.

The North Tawton players started to grow into the game spending longer periods in the right areas of the pitch and just before half-time got their rewards with a penalty of their own. We went to the oranges 3-3 and a feeling that the Tawts were slowly getting the upper-hand.

Exeter Athletic hadn’t read the script almost from the re-start, running from the half-way line, the Exeter full-back slipping far too many tackles going over the Tawton try line for a good solo effort.

With the kick added we found the score at 10-3 to the home side, blood pressure going up again!

A chat under the post from the senior players while Exeter took the conversion seemed to bring the North Tawton side back to the re-start with renewed vigour and determination.

We got play going and spent long periods almost camped on the Exeter try line pick-and-go, pick-and-go, a metre forward, a metre back and then over goes Luke Mingo for the Tawts, the kick added by Gary Sizmur to make it all square again, 10-10.

A penalty for North Tawton soon after the try gave us the lead at 10-13 for the first time in the match and with the success in the manner of the first try we got an almost copy pick-and-go type, this time with Kev Dennis adding the five points, the kick missed but the score now 10-18.

With a two-score lead it was reasonable to say that most in the crowd with a Tawton hat were starting to worry that the referee was only using one arm so to speak even allowing for bias, making some strange decisions to say the least.

All that aside the Tawts were now finally in control, winning important ball at break downs, looking now like the league leaders they are and just to take the game well away from a well-drilled Athletic side, there was a fine run from captain Craig Dennis.

He got a good ball and try taking the score to 10-23, thus enabling the travelling faithful to enjoy the final few minutes of the game and saviour what it could mean in the future.

This was a good game of rugby that in brutal honesty could well have been spoiled by the allocated referee who seemed to have trouble keeping up with play.

We are always taught in rugby to respect the ref and by the large we all do this.

However, it was a top of the table clash with two good fast teams who played fast attacking rugby. Man of the Match was Dan Dennis. He would always be one of the first names on my team sheet.

Next is at home to Tamar Sarries, the job not won yet but it will be another tough one watching England, a doddle compared to this to be honest.

Chris Phare.