Tavistock U11s 24

Barnstaple U11s 10

IN the final match of the season Tavistock hosted a strong team from North Devon.

The match started with strong scrummaging from the home side that forced their opponents to concede several penalties.

Centre Lloyd James made the first score. Continued pressure from the forwards saw Rob Leeson dominate lineouts and Matthew Smith show his strength with drives down the blindside. Acting scrum-half Alex Evans started to move the ball from the rucks wide to the backs, allowing Freddy Thompson to cause havoc among the Barnstaple defence.

With continuous pressure Barnstaple conceded a five metre penalty and following a quick tap Jonathan Oddie drove over for the first of his hat-trick of tries.

At the restart of the second half, Barnstaple scored. Tavistock attacked, with Aston Blay, James Hill and Rory Gilmore joining the rest of the forwards.

With the ball being made more available now, centre Pat Warlow and wings Jonathon Smith and William Harvey were allowed to show their paces. Marc Smerdon continues to show outstanding skills in the tackle and on attack Rob Millington came through on a rehearsed move only to be stopped inches short of the try line.

Eventually Barnstaple's defence failed under the pressure and Oddie added two tries.

Launceston U13s 36

Tavistock U13s 0

Despite the scoreline, Tavistock battled well against a disciplined and well-schooled home side.

Determined tackling kept Launceston down to just two tries during the first half, with Danny O'Connor-Thompson, Liam Edwards and Thomas Honey putting in some particularly good defensive work.

A superb tackle by Ramone Burton on the left wing also saved a certain try from a Launceston player flying at full pelt.

During the second half Tavistock played up hill and mistakes were instantly seized upon by the Launceston team. George Curtoys made a superb break and very nearly took a try for Tavistock but was thwarted just five metres out.

Wells U13s 5

Tavistock U13s 19

Tavistock celebrated their final match of the season with a superb win over touring side Wells.

Thomas Ewings played an inspired game, tackling and driving with style and even sprinting for the line with three Well players hanging on.

Burton again took in a textbook try-saving tackle, echoed by a stunning move from Shaun Daymond.

Dominic Hannant nearly took his debut try for the club, only to be disallowed for an earlier infringement. But Thomas Friend made amends with a superb drive over just before half time.

Wells equalised but Tavistock did not give in and great footballing resulted in a try for Burton, well converted by Daymond.

Great defensive work from Rob Shuttler, James Lawson, Alex Pickard and Ben Ewings kept the visitors on top — the final well-deserved try coming from O'Connor-Thompson, converted by Daymond.

Tavistock 15

Barnstaple 15

A MIXED age team from Barnstaple came to Sandy Park for the last fixture of the season and an enjoyable training game was played out in the Sunday morning sun.

The visitors scored first after a long period of pressure. A passage of fine play from the home side released Elliot Hoyte on a good run who passed to Josh Stephens to bring it level.

A strong run from Joe Hair came close to breaking through before the visitors went ahead again before the break.

The second half saw a change of tactics with the ball being moved out to the line and Josh Leeson making several long twisting runs.

A centre line set-piece penalty sent Phillip Snell through to score the equaliser. But the opposition were soon back on top.

After a sustained attack from Tavistock, Mark Friend intercepted a pass to score seconds before the final whistle.

The U9s' end of season barbecue is on May 19 at 4pm.