Merit

Tavistock 43

Newton Abbot 11

ON a wet afternoon at Sandy Park, Tavistock welcomed Newton Abbot for a merit table game.

Tavistock played up the slope in the first half and were on the scoreboard in the first five minutes through pace man Smerdon after some slick handling. The visitors replied a few minutes later with a penalty after Tavistock players were caught offside at the ruck.

The home side extended their lead with a try by Ben Neale which was set up by some strong running from the forwards and was converted by Kirk.

Newton Abbot replied again with a penalty and just before half time closed the gap to one point after scoring through their scrum half, making the score 12-11 to the home side.

Tavistock started the second half strongly and were putting the opposition under a lot of pressure and it was not long before they put points on the board — a pick up from the base of the scrum and an off load saw flanker Joe Elliott cross for Tavistock's third try.

The home side scored two more tries in just a matter of minutes — Ben Neale showing blistering pace to go outside his man and touch down in the corner and Pat Hobbs on the end of an overlap to also go over in the corner and extend their lead to 20 points.

Tavistock went down to 14 men after number eight Davis was given a 10 minute breather by the referee, this did not seem to effect them as they continued to stay on top and play all the rugby deep in their opponents half.

Tavistock added another try when Ben Hadfield smashed his way through the Newton Abbot defence to stretch his sides lead even further. Tavistock finished off a fine display of running rugby when Elliott went over for his second try of the game which Kirk converted.