Tavistock College 1st XV . . . . .38
Okehampton College 1st XV . .17
TAVISTOCK began their season with an emphatic victory over local rivals Okehampton.
The home team started well when a crunching tackle from Ian Jones set the tone of the match.
From the resulting pressure the forwards won a penalty from which Brendan Chapple powered over the line.
Tavistock increased their lead when Morton broke and Andy Roberts showed how rewarding good support play can be when the ball was laid off, leaving him to use his pace to take him over the line.
The away team came back strongly and placed Tavistock under sustained pressure, but good forward play and solid tackling won a scrum for Tavistock in their own half.
A planned blindside move led to Will Brown and Mark Hennessey linking up well to send Hennessey over; he duly converted.
From the restart Okehampton won a penalty from which they put three points on the board.
Drew Ellis continued to work hard, spoiling opposition possession and cleaning up scrappy ball. This allowed Will Brown to go over in the corner.
Tavistock came out all guns blazing for the second half.
Under pressure Okehampton cleared well but this led to a quick lineout from which Alex Brown showed that great pace combined with good angles of running is a deadly weapon — he ran 50 metres to score under the posts.
The visitors continued to battle and won territory, but this only led to powerhouse Sweeney finding space on the wing and going over in the corner.
Okehampton came back in the final minutes to score two good tries.