NORTH TAWTON 16 LANNER 10

A VERY depleted North Tawton side entertained another strong side from Cornwall in the shape of Lanner who travelled up to Taw Meadows with the bare 15.

It was Lanner who were taking advantage of the home side, taking longer to settle, struck first a good run down the clubhouse side, a few missed tackles and the visitors were on the scoreboard inside five minutes at this point it looked like a long afternoon for the Tawts and their supporters.

The home team, as the game went on, started to get a handle on their new look line-up and bit-by-bit taking the game to the Cornishmen.

We soon had points of our own on the board in the shape of a penalty, Gary Sizmur doing the honours, score 3-7.

Now North Tawton really start to get some momentum with their quick line breaks and off loading and on the 30-minute mark some quality passing involving forwards and backs resulted in Bill Sharp going over for a try.

With Gary Sizmur adding the conversion the Tawts went in front for the first time, 10-7.  We went in at half-time with a three point advantage.

Lanner came out in the second half fired up to be next to score, well knowing that the lighter team weight-wise wanted to move the ball around and avoid too much scrum time.

The away side did score first again this half with a penalty and it was back to level pegging 10-10.

While it looked tight on the board I think most felt that it was North Tawton who were getting the better ball.

The better of the exchanges put Lanner under a pressure they didn’t like.

It was this pressure that leads to two penalties for the home team and a yellow card for the Cornish.

Both penalties were by Mr Sizmur.

The final score of 16-10 a well-deserved victory for the newly-promoted Tawts.

It keeps us middle table at this stage of the season, which is no mean feat.

It is worth pointing out that, for as long as I can remember, North Tawton played a match without  any of the Dennis brothers taking part in on-field duties, all of them carrying injuries of some sort.

While it shows a growing strength in depth it’s a lot more fun when they are fit and able to play.

MoM was Si Cox who had a good game, but he always does.

This week Jack Phare gets the nod from his team mates playing out of position at full-back from scrum-half. A solid game if you cut Jack in half, it would say NTRFC down the middle, does what it says on the tin!

Chris Phare