Tavistock RFC thirds 20
Plymouth Barbarians seconds 19
WITH several of their Marjons students away for the Easter holidays, the home team had to dig deep to get a side together and were indebted to occasional players Sam Lawson and Adam James and veteran Chris Greatrex for helping out. All three played influential parts in what was a well contested game.
The visitors were first on the scoreboard with a converted try after five minutes, while the home side were still getting themselves organised.
The Tavistock forwards then started to exert their influence on the game and after a series of drives, hooker Eric Sprangle forced his way over the line for Tavistock's first try.
More forward pressure brought a second try soon afterwards to flanker Neil Cole and a few minutes later, after some good combined play by the backs and forwards, centre Adam James powered his way over the try line for a third score.
The visitors stuck to the task and were rewarded with a second try just before half-time, to bring the score to 15-12 to Tavistock at the interval.
The second half continued along similar lines to the first, with Tavistock forwards dominating, but the Barbarians defence held firm for most of the time. Lock Matt Woods was going over the line at the end of some good phases of play but unfortunately spilled the ball in the act of scoring. He made amends soon after, crashing through for an unconverted try.
The home team had their own share of defending to do when they were reduced to 14 men, following Neil Cole visiting the sin bin, but there was no further scoring until the final move of the game when the Barbarians scored a breakaway try that was converted, to bring the final score to 20-19 to Tavistock.
Thanks to Ambrose McGuire for stepping in to referee.