Ilfracombe 37 North Tawton 10

IT IS a long hike to Ilfracombe and after the four tries the Combes scored in the second half, the trip home felt even longer.

Add one first half try plus a couple of penalties and you get a convincing win for the home team, which after a first half with the Tawts only three behind was maybe a bit unexpected.

Having said that injuries played a big part in North Tawton losing their shape and struggling to maintain any cohesion in their set up.

First to go off was the captain James Miller with an ankle problem 10 minutes into the game, soon followed by Ed Knight with a dislocated shoulder (painful) by half-time.

For the whole of the second half it was uncontested scrums, the Tawts not able to find a fit prop and ended up with all sorts of players out of position.

All the time this was going on Ilfracombe grew in confidence and seemed to score their points with ease, knocking the stuffing out of what was a resilient North Tawton defence.

The game started well for Tawton and it must be noted that it was the away team who took an early lead with a try from one of the new faces in the side, James Dickinson.

With the kick added by Dave Fewings for a while it was 7-0 to the Tawts.

Ilfracombe got off the mark with a penalty and then right on half-time went over for a well-worked try giving a 10-7 score in favour of the Combes.

A Dave Fewings penalty early in the second half brought the scores level at 10-10 and gave the away supporters a glimmer of hope but alas the Ilfracombe team had their tails up and won the second half with a burst of four tries to run away with the match 37-10.

It has to be said that at times it got a bit hard and fast, no quarter asked or given, even if the Tawton boys were in the end playing for pride in the shirt.

It added up to a red card for Tango who will now have to sit out a couple of games which will be a big miss.

Listening in to the end of game huddle, coach Dan Bennett made the point “practice makes prefect”.

We need more of the players at training please. It will be a shame if we continue to lose games through lack of practice.

The individual skills are there for all to see but they just need honing together.

Chris Phare