Cornwall and Devon

Tavistock 24

Withycombe 17

TAVISTOCK were made to work hard for their bonus point home win at Sandy Park on Saturday.

Withycombe started strongly and their big forwards put the home side on the back foot in the early stages of this encounter. Some strong tackling from Tavistock’s young second row combination of Seb Cox and Leion Cole helped to keep their opponents at bay and a break from centre Andrew Craddock helped get the Moorlanders’ back into the game.

Craddock for Tavistock broke through from within his own half and was unlucky to get bundled into touch just five metres from the try line.

The Moorlanders continued to exert pressure but were perhaps guilty of keeping the ball tight when the space was in the wider channels.

Fortunately their persistence paid off and back rower Anthony De La Cour drove over for the opening score.

Withycombe responded quickly and when Tavistock failed to clear their lines effectively the visiting backs took their chance and ran through to score under the posts; they duly added the conversion.

Tavistock showed good character though and line breaks from full back Josh Birch and Will Gardener got them going forward. With the referee indicating a penalty advantage fly half Ed Nettleship chanced his arm and executed a neat chip and chase, showing a good turn of pace to outstrip the defenders and give the home side a 10- 7 advantage at half time.

In the second half Tavistock started to increase their share of possession and hooker Phil Wilson, Josh Birch and Will Gardner all made line breaks before team captain Andrew Schuttkacker busted over to score Tavistock’s third try. Nettleship added the difficult conversion.

For all their hard work Tavistock could not kill off their visitors who added a second score. In the last quarter of the game, however, Withycombe lost a player to the sin bin for persistent infringements and Tavistock took advantage to go through a series of driving plays before flanker Jasper Cameron added the all-important fourth try.

As the game came to an end the scrum became a bit of a lottery with both sides conceding penalties. A tap penalty from one of these saw Withycombe score in the corner with virtually the last play of the game and earned themselves a losing bonus point.