NORTH TAWTON 8 TAMAR SARACENS 10

NORTH Tawton were just not firing on all cylinders and slipped to a rare home defeat to a dogged Tamar side who knew how to close out a game when they needed to.

Right from the first whistle you could see that it was going to be a hard day at the office for both sides, some big tackles going in, both sides scrapping for every metre and every loose ball be it loose or otherwise.

For the first 20 minutes or so neither side got what you could say was the upper-hand, the first points of the match coming from the boots of James Bowden in the shape of a penalty to the home side, 3-0.

At this point any Tawts supporter would hope and think that they would start to go through the gears and take charge of what was proving to be a better Sarries side than that of the last meeting of the sides.

It just wouldn’t flow for North Tawton, a dropped pass, a bad kick, some good hard tackling, all went against them and all adding to the confidence of an away side who were enjoying their afternoons work.

It wasn’t long before they got their own penalty to level the scores at 3-3.

The passion in the game spilled over the line at times and a few words of calming for both sides was required from the referee who even so felt the need to issue two yellow cards, one each for both teams.

North Tawton were, in honesty, struggling at around the 30 minute mark to play the game in Sarries half and spent, for the home supporters liking, far too long defending their own lines.

This Sarries side had got their tails up and got their just reward before half-time with a try and conversion to go in front, making it 3-10 at the break.

At this point I will say hindsight is a wonderful thing and while accepting that every effort is made to play the squad and every credit to everybody who plays, I do wonder if the Tawts players could play that 40 minutes of rugby again whether they would start by leaving such a strong side on the bench so to speak.

The stark fact is we were 10-3 down at home and chasing the game.

The second half got underway and it was not long before the coaching staff all but emptied the bench for the home team and we saw glimpses of a quicker attacking game, for a while getting down the other end.

It was still hard, Sarries really fancied a good away win.

Some good attacking line play by Conner Mathis and Si Quick with quicker ball from Jack Phare and there was renewed hope in the camp.

After a sustained period of attacking play, a delightful chip kick from the scrum-half enabled Matt Baker to run on and dot down for a much-needed try albeit with a missed kick, the score now 8-10 in Sarries favour.

We got into the last quarter of the match and you got the feeling while North Tawton wanted to up the tempo the Sarries were more than happy with things as they were.

We got quite a few stoppages, injuries, etc, running the clock down, all in the game, and try as they did, the home side could not find any space to run into or to make that line break.

When the whistle did come to end the game the Tawts were still on the back foot.

As the season moves along I think North Tawton will beat better teams than this Tamar Sarries side but very much full credit should go to a good hard rugby playing side who gave their all and came out deserved winners in todays encounter.

Chris Phare