Devon Junior Vase

North Tawton 10

Topsham 24

EARLY pressure from Topsham was absorbed by North Tawton and then it was the home side who took the game to the opposition.

The tables were turned when Topsham broke out of defence and ran in a try by their scrum half Ian Land-Jones; fly half Paul Ferris converted.

For a period Top-sham had the better of Tawton in the set scrums but were not able to convert this into points due to the strong resistance put up by the defenders. A long clearance kick by Tawton failed to find touch and fell into the hands of Topsham right wing Adam Buckley who set off on a mazey run which ended with a good individual try. The conversion failed and the score remained 12-0 to the visitors.

Following a mistake in their defence close to their try line Tawton spilled the ball into the grasp of Topsham's prop Ben Boggis who forced his way through for a try, this one converted by Ferris.

North Tawton came back well and solid work by the forwards gave their three quarters a chance to mount an attack down the right wing. A break by deceptively fast centre Jamie Stevens wrong-footed the defence and saw him through for a welcomed individual try; Stevens converted his try to take the score to 7-19 in favour of Topsham.

Topsham started the second half where they left off and Tawton were stretched to hold out. An exchange of missed penalties by both sides left the scoreboard unchanged.

A good break by Tawton full back David Fewings gained territory for his side so that the next penalty was in range for Stevens to convert the three points and take the score to 10-19.

North Tawton worked hard but Topsham had the edge in most areas and the final try fell to their centre Nick Litten. He broke the defensive line and went over wide out on the left giving Ferris a difficult conversion which came back off the post.