Devon one

North Tawton 20

Exeter Saracens 14

WITH the constant rain it was if the teams were playing with a bar of soap rather than a ball, which made it difficult for either team to keep to the passing game that both were trying to play. To both sides’ credit some good rugby was played out and two evenly matched sides went at it full on.

North Tawton took the lead with a try by Luke Dennis and a successful conversion by Alex Dennis for 7-0.

By half time the home side spend most of the play after their initial try in their own half - some good defending and some handling errors by Exeter Sarries stopping them troubling the scoreboard.

At the start of the second half Saracens really pushed for some points of their own, which came with a try and kick to level the score at 7-7.

As in the past North Tawton seemed to get better the longer the game went on and they soon retook the lead with a good try from Alex Dennis but the kick was missed for 12-7.

Saracens took advantage of a poor clearance kick by the Tawton backs for a charge down to score under the posts to make it 14-12 in the visitors’ favour.

North Tawton dug deep and a penalty kicked by Alex gave them a one point advantage  at 15-14.

This tight game could have gone either way. With the clock ticking down North Tawton would have settled for a one point win but the Exeter side kept pushing bodies forward looking to at least get in the Tawton half.

A good kick down field though by the Tawton scrum half well inside his own half  released the backs; they took with them hooker Matt Baker, who was able to touch down between the sticks and make up for the 10 minutes in the bin he had spent earlier in the game. This second try clinched the game for the home side.

This was another good game to watch, despite the rain.

Man of the match was North Tawton’s Tom Phillips who, as always, gave it everything in the front row.