South West Cup

Tavistock/Newquay U18s girls 46

Devonport U18s

girls 7

IN this semi-final Tavistock clustered with Newquay to create a formidable team, which on Sunday decimated a strong Devonport side with six well worked tries in the second half.

Persistent windy conditions helped Devonport in the first half. Nevertheless, Tavistock soon settled to the conditions better and from the Devonport kick off, recycled the ball through several phases, to power into the visitors' half. After a few scrappy moves by the town girls, Lauren Dawe broke through to score under the posts, which was converted by Annabel Longden.

Handling errors ended the Tavistock moves to give a period of stalemate, which was ended when a move out along the line enabled Dash Murray to score in the corner.

Tavistock/Newquay dominated the scrums with Maddy Cinnamond and Kaitlin Eddy pushing back the Devonport pack at each occasion. In the loose, Devonport battled and tended to win the mauls and rucks allowing them to counter-attack. With the wind behind them, a cheeky little kick from the Devonport stand-off bounced awkwardly for fullback Beth Grant, straight into the hands of the onrushing Devonport players. The try brought Devonport right in touch at half time 12-7.

The second half was a different game. Tavistock/Newquay still kept supremacy in the scrum, but also won most of the loose ball. The backs communicated and controlled the game with their slick passing and direct running. Tries came at regular intervals, scored by Annabel Longden (2), Bronwyn Rundle (2), a second for Lauren Dawe and a captain's try by Flo Rodgers. Annabel Longden converted two of the tries to complete the scoring.

There were exceptional performances from Beth Grant at and Kim Upcott. Fen Easthaugh was always forceful in carrying the ball.

The team play Liskeard in the final.