NORTH TAWTON 25 EXETER ATHLETIC 10

ON a very sunny and hot afternoon at the home of the already crowned League Champions a large crowd gathered to see if a North Tawton side could do what was only a dream at the beginning of the season and do the double, take both the League and Devon Junior cups.

Standing in their way for such an epic feat were the league runners-up Exeter Athletic who had already tasted success at Taw Meadows earlier in the season.

As invited guests enjoyed a cold buffet laid on by the club, both teams warmed up in the very un-rugby-like weather.

The ability to cope with the heat could prove a big factor in the outcome of who gets their hands on the cup, the talk and hope in the Tawton camp was that as the much lighter mobile side, the Tawts could adjust to the conditions better as the game went on.

We all knew that the first 20 minutes or so weren’t going to be for the faint hearted, Exeter were going to try and make sure size counts.

The game got underway and as expected Exeter Athletic were straight on the g-forward mode, pinning the home side in their own half for long periods.

North Tawton struggled to get any ball and gave away, in quick succession, three very kickable penalties for high tackles and offsides

With nerves possibly showing, the Exeter kicker missed all three, so the score at 25 minutes remained 0-0.

North Tawton players were still finding it difficult to get a handle on the game and some harsh decisions by the officials were not helping their cause.

Missed tackles let Exeter Athletic in for the first try of the match with another missed kick making it 0-5 to the away side.

It was not in the script for the home supporters.

Finally the play got to the other end of the pitch and, at last, the ref remembered he had another arm.

A penalty to Tawton’s Gary Sizmur made it 3-5.

Exeter restarted with what seemed even more intent and with their forwards making the weight advantage work at scrum time, this kept the ball well away from the Tawton side.

Exeter backs went over for their second try, this time with the extra points and, we went into half-time 3-10 to the away side.

We started the second half with the home fans thinking it’s only a converted try and we will be level and it wasn’t long before that’s what we got.

It was the result of North Tawton being a lot sharper at the breakdown getting better ball, the backs starting to fire on all cylinders.

It was Matty Dennis who got the home side’s first second-half try with Gary Sizmur adding the conversion to make it 10-10, game on. North Tawton aren’t the champions for nothing and now with their heads up they were going to show all watching how they can play.

They took control but the Tawts were in charge and running some good lines, taking advantage of what looked like a tiring Exeter team.

Luke Dennis made a try that took North Tawton into the lead for the first time in the match, with a missed kick it was 15-10.

With Tawton down to 14, the result of a yellow for the full-back (must talk nicer to the referee), there was still time for Athletic to come back but the Tawts seemed to almost take it in their stride and increased the attacking pressure.

A brilliant run down the wing by Craig Dennis, who was surely in for a try, was only stopped by a neck-high tackle, resulting in a yellow card for the away side.

It was scant reward for the Tawts, the ref judging the captain was in touch at tackle time, a decision not agreed by many with maybe a better view.

A line out for Athletic, a dropped ball, a quick bit of thinking by one of the finishers off the bench, a certain Jordan Cornthwaite, a brilliant run, resulted in a contender for try of the season.

It was a real solo effort and with the kick added by Gary Sizmur it gave us the score 22-10 with minutes to go.

With almost the final kick of the game, Gary Sizmur added another three points to give us the final score 25-10.

Make no mistake this wasn’t an easy win. Exeter came with a game plan and for the first 40 minutes stuck to it, but bit-by-bit the best North Tawton side for many a year found a way to win and by the end ran out very convincing winners.

North Tawton had not won the cup since the 1956-57 season but had been losing finalists in 2015 and 2016 so were delighted to finally get their hands back on the Devon Junior Cup, which was first played for in the 1888-89 season.

Chris Phare