Wessex 3 Tavistock 13 TAVISTOCK had to work hard for this victory in Exeter as Wessex belied their lowly table position. The early pressure all came from Wessex who although not achieving parity in the forwards ran the ball at every opportunity testing the defence. The defence held firm with skipper Duncan Law and Mike Lyddon closing up the centre and Paul Greenhill and the other back row forwards of Darren Cole and Jake Phillips ensuring that Wessex were unable to break through close to the scrum. Wessex did take an early lead however when Tavistock were penalised for off side and conceded a penalty goal. The Tavistock pack then responded when a clean catch at the line by Andy Hunt allowed the pack to drive for the line and scrum half Lee Greatrex dived over to claim the score. Wessex were then reduced to fourteen men when they had a player sinbinned for illegal use of the boot on Tavistock hooker Adrian Baker. There was a general agreement among supporters that the Wessex player was lucky not to be red carded as the incident seemed to merit stronger sanction. The second half started with Tavistock again having to defend and the Smerdon brothers Colin and Sam together with Joe Lane put in some excellent tackles out wide to cut down their opposite numbers to stem the flow. Tavistock gradually exerted control and the lead was increased with a penalty goal from fly half Josh Sutton. With the game drawing to its conclusion Tavistock put the result beyond doubt when winger Sam Smerdon kicked a loose ball through the Wessex defence to claim a try in the corner. This result keeps Tavistock in fourth place in the league. This weekend Tavistock entertain Dursley from Gloucestershire in a friendly at Sandy Park. Kick off 2.30pm.
