COUNTIES 3 TRIBUTE DEVON NORTH & EAST

Exeter Athletic RFC 22 North Tawton 29

NORTH Tawton RFC travelled to the home of Exeter Athletic for their first game since beating Crediton a month ago, so long ago, in fact, it feels like a different season, reports Chris Phare.

This fixture itself was rearranged because of a flooded pitch on the initial date, thankfully all is dried out now. While expectations were high in the Tawton camp, some held a view the Tawts could be a little rusty after such a long layoff.

It took just a few minutes for James Miller to score their first try though, sending them on their way and Jack Phare added the conversion for a 0-7 advantage.

This allayed some worries but in fairness to Exeter, it didn't quite work like that because, while North Tawton never looked like losing the match, they sure as hell made hard work of winning it. No disrespect to Athletic but the long layoff did show in the handling and general cohesion of a team needing to play every week of the season.

Athletic hit back with a penalty of their own, only to spark the Tawts back into life again with some good running rugby and good safe hands seeing Jack Phare go over for a try of his own- missing the kick to leave it at 3-12 at the break.

A fired-up team talk for Athletic and some indifferent play by North Tawton saw the former pull it back to 8-12. This game had the potential to be a banana skin if Tawton didn’t watch their backs.

When the need arose, the ever-dependable Si Quick came up with a telling try, converted by Jack Phare to give Tawton a bit of breathing space at 8-19. This was soon followed by a captain’s try from Ryan Goss, albeit with a missed kick, the Tawts going further ahead as a result. At 8-24, surely the win was a formality.

That is easier said than done though with Athletic not giving up quite yet- it has to be said their heads never dropped all game and out of nowhere, they notched a second try of the match with the kick added, bringing them right back into the game at 15-24.

Heading into the final knockings of the game, the away supporters were really just waiting for the referee to blow up but alas, there was still time for Tom Davis to get North Tawton’s 5th try, a missed kick leaving it at 15-29.

This stall wasn’t it with the ball ending up, from the restart, down in the Tawton red zone. As a timely reminder that they won’t lie down at home, Athletic pushed over for a third score and the successful conversion earned them a losing bonus point at 22-29, bonus points for both sides.

The players themselves would admit it was not their best performance of the season but it has to be said, to their, credit they ground out a win. It was only the last try from the home team that flattered the scoreboard and it was not that long ago Tawton might have lost that game.

Here’s hoping for no more postponed games!