Devon Junior Cup

North Tawton 18

Plymouth Arguam 7

NORTH Tawton's extraordinary run of success this season continued with this win over Devon one leaders Plymouth Arguam in the second round of the Devon Junior Cup competition.

They put the visitors under pressure from the off, pinning them in their own half for the first quarter of the match and forcing Arguam to concede penalties, one resulting in a yellow card for a dangerous tackle. Two of the penalties were in kicking range and Tawton's fly half Alex Dennis duly slotted the kicks to give his side a six point lead.

Arguam were no pushovers and brought their physicality into play, particularly their mobile, hard-running second rows. North Tawton were not intimidated and fronted up to the challenge with a number of superb tackles. Just before half time a well-worked cross field move put right wing Jake Ayris away to score a try out wide, which was not converted. Tawton went into the break 11-0 ahead.

The Plymouth side started the second period with predictable vigour, putting Tawton under pressure on their five metre line. Eventually they worked an overlap on the defending line and their centre Dave Hall went through for a try, converted by Paul Ansell. The Arguam scrum were briefly in the ascendancy but Tawton weathered the storm and continued to tackle anything that moved, the game developing into a hugely watchable spectacle for the supporters.

A quickly-taken tap penalty on the left flank 20 metres from Arguam's line saw the ball deftly passed through six pairs of North Tawton hands to the right wing and then back inside to winger Ben Sharp to run round and touch down near the posts. The conversion by Ayris took the score to 18-7 and despite a final push by Arguam when they had a lineout on Tawton's 10 metre line, North Tawton came through as winners of a bruising encounter.

North Tawton proceed to the next round feeling they have nothing to fear from their potential opponents.