Powergen National Vase fourth round

Newquay Hornets 3

Tavistock 32

TAVISTOCK travelled to Newquay, who are in the higher Devon and Cornwall Leagues, for this tie and ran out convincing winners, scoring three tries and conceding none.

This is the second round in succession that Tavistock have travelled to a team in a higher division and come away winners.

Tavistock were disrupted on the morning of the game with the loss of influential hooker Rob Sleep through illness and were forced to reshuffle their front row with tight head prop Tom Hurdwell moving to the hooking berth.

This seemed initially to disrupt the Tavistock set-piece but as the game went on the scrum and lineout functioned well, proving a plethora of good clean possession.

Tavistock were put on the back foot for the first 15 minutes and had to absorb tremendous pressure from the Newquay pack.

When this pressure had been repelled Tavistock's heads seemed to go up as Newquay's went down.

Tavistock stormed upfield and after exerting pressure in the forwards Newquay were penalised. Neil Evans put Tavistock in front with the resultant kick.

Then prop Rob Monk was driven over the Newquay line to score following a five-metre lineout won by the soaring Andy Hunt to increase the lead.

Tavistock kept turning the screw and Evans kicked a second successful penalty. Then hooker Hurdwell got on the scoresheet, driving over from close range. Evans converted.

Newquay at last got back into the Tavistock half and on the stroke of half-time the visitors were penalised for infringing at a ruck.

The Newquay fly half reduced the arrears with a converted penalty.

The second half saw Tavistock continue to dominate with Number 8 Andrew Griffiths, who had replaced an unwell Jude Rotton in the first half, making large inroads into the Newquay defence from the base of the scrum.

With flankers Paul Greenhill and Matt Cole in close support this provided a platform allowing scrum half Lee Greatrex to unleash the Tavistock threequarter line.

But despite this pressure Tavistock were not able to breach the Newquay line until Greatrex skipped through to score.

The final act of the game saw outstanding fly half Evans use his searing pace to beat the Newquay defence for a deserved try. He converted both second half scores.

This week sees Tavistock back in league action and travelling to Torrington for a Devon division 1 game.