Western Counties West Penryn 53

Tavistock 26

TAVISTOCK travelled to Penryn on Saturday to play a tough and physical encounter for the Moorlanders.

Playing conditions could not have been better and a fast-paced game saw an early converted penalty give Penryn the lead, However Tavistock's Charlie Furnivall instantly capitalised on Penryn's failure to secure the resulting restart and scored to put the Moorlanders 7-3 up with the help of fly-half West's conversion.

Penryn, with a slight downhill advantage started to attack around the fringes of the rucks before using quick hands and a kick through leading to their winger scoring under the posts.

Tavistock promptly responded by working the Penryn blind side after the restart, to where number eight Mark Friend side-stepped the would-be tacklers to ground a try for himself. After this the Cornish team continued to batter away at Tavistock's defence and they soon worked an opening on the blind side to score again in what was a breathless opening 20 minutes of the game.

The remainder of the half saw Tavistock on the back foot and struggling to cope with the physicality of the Cornish side who were evidently relishing playing in front of a home crowd. Although Tavistock's tackling and defence was uncharacteristically poor on the day, stand in captain Doug Lloyd and seasoned flanker Duncan Law were as tenacious as ever, Lloyd making his presence felt in midfield while Law continuously turn over ball against the Cornish tides.

A disruption in the game came when Tavistock hooker Ross Bailey was carried from the pitch and Tavistock had to settle for a frustrating half time score of 22-12.

Tavistock needed to start the second half on the front foot, however it was Penryn scored again through their strong running back row. Tavistock continued to fight doggedly at the break down and retained their own ball through the efforts of second rower Mark Wheatley, flanker Andrew Schuttkacker and prop Josh O'Neil in particular. Little of it was quick however and fly half West decided to take the aerial route and kick across towards the ever dangerous winger Furnivall. The Penryn full back failed to claim the kick and Furnivall pounced again to run in Tavistock's third try. West converted.

More missed tackles by the visitors led to Penryn scoring two tries in relatively quick succession. However Tavistock did not give up, well aware that a fourth try would give them a bonus point . They battled on with young full back Tim Pope fitting into the back line with unnerving ease. The bonus point try came from broken play when Tavistock's player of the match Furnivall found another gear and breaking three tackles touched down to round off an impressive hat-trick.

Penryn scored one more try however the game was already lost for Tavistock.