Withycombe 19

Tavistock 1st XV 3

TAVISTOCK travelled to Withycombe looking for their first win of the season at a ground that had favoured the visiting team in the previous meeting between the two clubs.

Tavistock started the game playing up the slope but with the wind behind them.

From the start Tavistock imposed their game plan well with half backs Richard West and Ewan Smith controlling the phases. Pressure on the Withycombe defence, generated by strong running from Lloyd James, Robin Jones and Duncan Law, forced the Withycombe backs to give away a brace of penalties for a dangerous tackle followed by an offside.

Tavistock elected to kick for goal with West slotting one of the attempts, 3-0 to the visitors.

The remainder of the first half followed suit with Tavistock retaining possession for long periods of the game, however frustratingly for both players and travelling supporters the finishing touches were lacking in important positions.

Half time and Tavistock were leading 3-0 and confident the downward slope would provide further scores in the second half.

The second half started with a few errors from both teams which resulted in some long kicking from the Withycombe backs. These were fielded well by the Tavistock back three of Will Glover, Callum Harding and Charlie Furnivall. Tavistock set pieces were starting to function, with Matt Martin and Mark Kerswill scrummaging well, backed up by second rows Andrew Griffiths and Andrew Kaka. This provided a platform for Chris Morton to pick up and provide quick ball to West who drew his man and fed Smith. The Withycombe backs were bamboozled, resulting in Doug Lloyd getting in behind their defence for a scoring opportunity; unfortunately the play was well read by Withycombe's full back who intercepted the final pass.

Tavistock's missed opportunities appeared to provide Withycombe with confidence as they started to dominate the breakdown providing them with good ball to run at the Tavistock defence which, despite some strong tackling from centre George Rodgers and back row replacement Dan Oner, was not functioning as a defensive unit.

Withycombe made the most of their opportunities; firstly through quick thinking on the blind side they overloaded the Tavistock defence for a score in the corner to take the lead. The conversion was missed by the opposition 10 who had started to pin Tavistock into their own 22 with some tactical kicking.

The second try for Withycombe came from a scrum which Tavistock contested well with Nick Hocking providing some fresh input in the front row, the Withycombe backs used a simple move to provide another mismatch on the blind side and they crossed for a second score.

Tavistock brought on David Goodspeed with the hope that his creative influence would pull them back in to the game. Tavistock were putting pressure back on with strong running and quick ball but in the wrong areas of the pitch, this resulted in Tavistock taking risks in the late stages and a Withycombe defender intercepted a pass to score under the posts allowing an easy conversion and a final score of 19-3.

Another frustrating outing for Tavistock, who are working hard in training but not transferring their efforts and skills onto the field on a Saturday. Tavistock will hope to kick start their season next weekend when they play Teignmouth at home, kick off 3pm.