Devon two

North Tawton 20

Salcombe 3

THIS game, played in the soaking wet is what Devon rugby is all about and it does not matter which league you’re talking about, this was two well matched sides making the best of the conditions.

The younger side, in the shape of North Tawton, took on the older Salcombe side with wise old heads.

The bigger Salcombe pack gave the lighter Tawton side plenty to think about at scrum time but the home side are a lot more mobile moving the ball around, with good passing, just the final one going astray.

It took until the 35th minute for North Tawton to score the first points of the game with Matt Baker getting the first of his two tries of the match, the second before half time to give North Tawton a 10-0 lead into the break .

The second half got underway with Salcombe making light of being a man down through injury and not having a replacement. They pinned the home side well back inside their own 22. It took some well managed defending to keep them out and a converted penalty was scant reward for their efforts, with 10-3 after 60 minutes.

After a couple of missed kicks North Tawton’s Dave Fewings got on the score board with a try of his own but missed the conversion as Tawton went 15-3 up.

The game was slowly getting away from a tiring Salcombe side.

With the rain still coming down sideways, North Tawton went in search of their fourth and the bonus point try. A good effort from Bill Sharp saw him go over and another missed conversion made it 20-3. This proved to be the final score of the match, a good game played in poor conditions.

Credit must go to both sides and Salcombe never gave up, even though they finished the game with only 13 players.

Man of the match touch line side Ben Riches.