NORTH TAWTON 6 - CREDITON SECONDS 20

ON a bitterly cold Friday night North Tawton RFC welcomed their friends from up the road in the shape of Crediton Seconds to Taw Meadow for a game of floodlit rugby, the very first game under the newly-installed lights.

A good-sized crowd braved the cold to turn out on this well deserved night, North Tawton RFC rightly proud of now having such facilities.

With an impressive clubhouse NTRFC has some of the best facilities that a Devon rugby club can offer.

Just before kick off at 7.30pm, those that managed to leave the warmth of the bar area were treated to a short but spectacular firework display and then the lady ref blew her whistle for the first time under lights and we got down to the “nitty gritty” of trying to beat the big boys who come from other side of Bow.

The match started well enough for the Tawts who applied most of the early pressure, which resulted in a penalty, but the chance of three points went with a missed kick by Dave Fewings.

This seems to wake Crediton up to the fact that while the clubs might be a few leagues apart, in real terms, the home team are on the case. The Crediton Seconds team, with a few blow-ins from the first team, “just to even it up a bit” says the man from Kirton, opened the scoring with a try well-worked by their powerful looking forwards, releasing the backs to go over for five points. It was a missed kick so 5-0 to Crediton.

The temperature on the crowd side of the whitewash was dropping to zero or below but on the field things seemed to be hotting up, a yellow card for the away team and two penalties for the Tawts gave us a hard-earned single point lead to make it 6-5 to Tawton.

While most of the home fans were happy at this stage of the match it was clear that the Crediton dominance at scrum time was going to have its effect and so it did, North Tawton struggling to get any clean ball, being pushed back at almost every scrum.

It was hard work against a well-drilled pack who used the advantage to run in two more tries before half-time, both kicks missed so half-time score was 6-15 to Crediton.

North Tawton started the second half well. It looked like a new tactic was in force, kick over the top, keep trying to turn the big boys around and some good little chips over the top by the Tawts nine and 10 gave the Seconds something to think about.

Again, at scrum time, it was all Crediton, they were repeatedly warned for pushing early but all this seems to result in is a re-set.

This was not helping North Tawton’s cause at all, with the ref being very correct it was turning into a scrum fest.

Scrum after scrum suited Crediton. They would pack down all night but the Tawts needed to play a running game. It was not to be.

Crediton scored what turned out to be the only points of the second half with their fourth try of the game giving us the final score of 6-20 to Crediton.

I think its fair to say that the final score flatters the away side just a tad.

North Tawton came close to getting a try of their own right at the death with some good handling skills and good attacking moves and 13-20 would, I feel, have been a truer reflection on a game played, in most parts, in good spirits on a great night for all involved.

Ryan Goss was Man of the Match, always wanting the ball, always going forward. Tomorrow, Saturday, the game is away to Buckfastleigh.

Chris Phare