NORTH TAWTON 7 - SOUTH MOLTON 52

THE first proper home game of the season, a Cup encounter against old rivals South Molton didn’t go the way the Tawts wanted.

A Molton try in the first two minutes gave an early clue to the way things worked out score wise at the final whistle.

There is no getting away from it, it is a big loss. Tawton conceded eight tries and with six of them being converted gave Molton 52 points.

While the scoreboard never lies it sometimes does not give you the full picture.

North Tawton never gave up, always seeming keen to take on a much bigger pack and always trying to play rugby their way.

The honest truth was the South Molton pack were so dominating that the Tawts more than struggled to get any clean ball to play with.

Molton are a league above and are a big well-drilled powerful side who are going to take some beating by anybody this season on this showing.

It doesn’t help North Tawton’s cause in games against the bigger sides that they are pound-for-pound a lighter side while big don’t make you better, it can make you harder to shove around and in essence that’s what happened.

The backs, however good they might be, need the forwards to do the hard work first, having said that the forwards that played in the game never gave up and were a credit to the shirt.

The home side did get a try of their own to avoid being nilled at home, a well-worked effort with Matt Baker going over the line and the kick by Dave Fewings.

The Cup is now more than likely out of reach for this season so North Tawton will look to use the remaining Cup games as warm ups for the main objective, the league matches. Hopefully by then a few of the missing will have made their way back to the fold.

This may sound a bit flat but to finish, remember you always get your moneys worth watching Tawton.

The new players are adding to the side big time, the guts of the team never give up and if you know any out of work forwards get in touch!

Chris Phare