Merit league

Tavistock seconds 25

Exeter Saracens secs 22

TAVISTOCK were slow into their stride and found themselves five points down after only two minutes, when the Saracens pacy flyhalf raced through a gaping hole in the home defence.

This sparked Tavistock into action and the next 20 minutes were evenly balanced with the Tavistock forwards working hard up the slope, to supply some decent possession to their backs, but wrong options and poor passing prevented Tavistock breaching the Saracens' defence. 

Saracens fashioned a second scoring chance, which was duly taken. Tavistock forwards then forced their way upfield again and prop Tim Child was on hand to score an unconverted try. Three minutes from halftime, Saracens made another swift break for a third well taken try, which was also converted, giving them a 17-5 halftime lead.

Playing down the slope in the second half, Tavistock's forwards gradually started to  take the initiative. For 15 minutes, the home side were camped in the Saracens 22, but had not managed to break through when Saracens made a swift counter-attack and after the home team were penalised for a crooked feed at a scrum near their own line; a quick free kick resulted in another try to the visitors.

At 5-22 down, it looked all over, however, Tavistock thought otherwise and spurred on by veteran scrum half Richard Staniland and aided by some good line kicking from fellow veteran, fly half Martin Credicott, the home forwards took control of both the set scrums and the rucks and mauls and in the next 20 minutes, scored three tries from driving mauls, which the visitors were quite unable to defend.

The tries came from locks, Lee Easton and Darren Cole, with Staniland capping a fine game with the third one. Credicott converted one of the tries, which brought the scores level with five minutes remaining. The Tavistock pack continued to pummel the Saracens defence and with the last action of the game, the visitors were penalised for offside, leaving Credicott to calmly bang over the penalty kick from 30 metres, to complete an amazing fightback.

It was a victory gained by sheer determination and hard work. Captain John Wakem led by example and back row men Tom Dawe and Andrew Griffiths were prominent throughout.