Devon one

NORTH TAWTON 19

BUCKFASTLEIGH 8

THIS was a big day in the history of North Tawton RFC when two home teams took to the field at Taw Meadows – the seconds playing Exeter Engineers on the far pitch and the first team taking on the well drilled team from Buckfastleigh on the main pitch.

With 30 plus players turning out for NTRFC it was no mean feat for a small town club. North Tawton firsts took on a mobile looking Buckfast side looking to bring the home team’s unbeaten run to an end.

Both sides from the kick off showed a desire to play a fast ball in hand type of game; there was some good rugby by both teams which kept the score 0-0 after 14 minutes. It was North Tawton who struck first with a run from their own half after some quick slick passes and Gary Sizmur going over for his first of the afternoon — but a missed kick made it 5-0.

Now North Tawton had found the try line it was not long before they repeated the performance this time with Si Cox dotting down under the posts and a successful kick for 12-0 to the home side.

Buckfastleigh were not giving up quite yet and some good cover tackles stopped the home side breaking down the wings but they could not prevent man of the math Gary Sizmur finding a gap after more good play from the backs his second try; the kick from James Bowden made it 19-0. 

The visitors were awarded a penalty and scored the three points just on half time.

Buckfastleigh then added a try of their own at the start of the second half, taking the score to 19-8 and it was looking like a bit of a test for North Tawton 60 minutes in. The last 20 minutes saw a yellow card apiece for each side.

However, even after a considerable amount of injury time the score remained 19-8 another win for North Tawton; alas no bonus point man of the match in another cracking match.