Cornwall and Devon

Tavistock 19

Plymstock Albion Oaks 10

TAVISTOCK built on last week’s impressive defensive display against Plymouth Argaum with a mighty show of forward dominance that brought high flying Plymstock down to earth with a bump.

Playing into a strong wind in the first half the Moorlanders started slowly and slipped to a ten point deficit inside the first quarter. Tavistock kept their composure, however, and played to their strengths. The forwards kept the ball tight and rumbled their way forward to the Plymstock line. Hammy Kerswill and Andrew Schuttkacker both made yards before prop Charlie Charlton powered over for the home side’s first try. Andrew Craddock added the tricky conversion. Tavistock continued to defend stoutly until the end of the half and managed to keep their opponents from scoring even when they had a man in the sin bin.

Plymstock’s scrum had started to creak in the first half and when they failed to make the ten metre line with the second half kick-off Tavistock were quick to capitalise on an obvious advantage. The front five of Charlie Charlton, Hammy Kerswill, Joe Hair, Leion Cole and Seb Cox tore their opponents to shreds and shunted the former league leaders around at will, numerous scrum penalties during the course of the game.

As the half progressed scrum half Hamish Dawson started to take control and utilise his hard running back row of Jamie Legg, Doug Morgan-Thomas and Andrew Schuttkacker. Dawson also started to employ more kicks out of hand and one of these found acres of space on the right-hand side. Playing in the unfamiliar role of winger, flanker Hallam Bourton showed a great turn of pace to chase the kick and beat his opposing wing and fullback to touch down in the corner.

Plymstock looked to respond by running the ball from deep but it was not the weather for expansive rugby and when their handling let them down they were made to pay at scrum time conceding further penalties. This eventually resulted in the referee losing his patience and he dispatched the away side’s hooker to the sin bin. A five-metre scrum shortly followed to the Moorlanders and a further penalty was awarded when the Plymstock scrum collapsed. Dawson took a quick tap and dived over to score. Craddock again kicked confidently and added the extra two points moving Tavistock to an important two score lead.

Despite a few unavailabilities and injuries Tavistock were able to field a strong bench and both Jack Lewis and Tom Charlesworth made line breaks when they came on. Ash Martin came on into the front row and made sure the scrum pressure kept going until the end.

As the game moved into the last quarter, Tavistock showed that they could play in the wider channels and a break down the left from centre Louis Cockcroft saw him put Charlesworth into space. Charlesworth looked to have timed his pass perfectly to winger Ash Toll who raced into the left-hand corner. Unfortunately for the home side the referee adjudged it to be forward, denying the Moorlanders what would have been a well-deserved try bonus point score. Nevertheless, the increasingly impressive red and black defence held strong and Tavistock player coach Hammy Kerswill secured a turnover at the last play of the game to win the penalty and ensure The Moorlanders a home victory.