Tavistock Ladies' U16s 33
Taunton Ladies' U16s 27
THIS was the classic game of two halves — in the first, Tavistock ran in 26 points with no reply but in the second Taunton scored 27 to a single converted try. Tavistock deserved their win for their determined running and powerful tackling.
Directly after the kick-off, the home side looked menacing and played some good attacking rugby, but Tavistock got into their stride and began to dominate the first half with four tries by Ali Huntley, Kerry Walke, Beth Neave and Fiona McCall. Three of these were converted by McCall.
It looked easy for Tavistock, but within one minute of the restart Taunton had exploited a weakness in the Tavistock right and scored. They immediately, went back to the same weakness and scored twice more. So after five minutes of the second half the score had dramatically changed to 26 -17.
Tavistock strengthened the right wing but conceded again after 20 minutes after continuous pressure on the Taunton line and having two tries (rightly) disallowed. The pressure told in the end with Beth Neave scoring to ease Tavistock away.
Taunton were not finished and on the stroke of time scored a final try.
The main difference between the sides was the effective passing of the Tavistock threequarter line and their solid tackling, but the Tavistock forwards were also always forceful in getting good ball to the backs with Katie Scorer always in the action around the pitch. Cathy O'Boyle, during the restructuring of the right wing, showed great versatility in playing in a variety of positions.
Players of the match: Amy Neave and Jo Able.