Cornwall and Devon

Tavistock 41

Honiton 12

TAVISTOCK welcomed league leaders Honiton in what was expected to be the championship decider.

Honiton kicked off the stronger and more composed team and forced the home side onto the back foot. Although Tavistock were struggling to contain the visitors they were still creating opportunities and carried a constant threat but made too many mistakes early on to capitalise.

Honiton took the lead through a well worked backs move which resulted in an overlap out wide and their fullback executed the final pass putting the winger in to score the opening try.

Tavistock came back powerfully with ball carriers Andrew Griffiths and Matt Martin making inroads and the back row of James Bruna and Mark Friend worked tirelessly to secure ball at the breakdown. They were rewarded when Andrew Kaka provided clean ball off the top of the lineout and Richard West moved the ball into space for Dan Luffman to feed Ben Hadfield whose explosive pace as he beat his man and go over— 5-5.

The game was being played at a frantic pace with both teams playing positive rugby. Tavistock's Adrian Baker and Lloyd James being most effective in the scrums. The next score came from broken play after a huge hit in midfield by Doug Lloyd; the loose ball was scooped up by Luffman who outstripped the covering defence to make it 10-5. With the capacity crowd now in full voice Tavistock went in search of further points; with Ewan Smith conducting proceedings from scrum half, Tavistock were stretching Honiton and the influential Ross Batton sucked in the defence before switching with Luffman giving him the space to run unopposed under the posts. West converted, 17-5.

Honiton tested Tavistock but the defence scrambled effectively with West and Lloyd leading the line well and Charlie Furnival and Batton showing their tackling qualities. West rubbed salt into Honiton's wounds by extending the lead with a snap-shot drop goal, half time 20-5.

Tavistock started the second half full of confidence but the visitors, to their credit, made them work for every yard. Tavistock's speed of attacks came in various forms with West utilising inside balls, kicks to the corners and fizzing wide passes. Furnival was on the end of one of these passes and showed his great footwork to score a further Tavistock try; West added the extras 27-5.

Tavistock brought on fresh legs to replace Griffiths and Baker with Dan Oner and Ollie D quickly adapted to the tempo of the match — Oner making his trademark big hits whilst Ollie led a solid scrum. Tavistock scored again passing the ball through many hands before Luffman off loaded to Duncan Law to touch down. West made it 34-5.

Honiton tried to increase the pace again and were rewarded with a second try. In broken play their fullback showed his speed to loop outside of the covering defence to dot down close to the posts, 34-12.

Fittingly it was Tavistock and Luffman who had the final say when David Goodspeed avoided two tacklers and released Luffman who completed the scoring. West converted 41-12.

With this win Tavistock leap frog Honiton to the top of the table. They have played an exciting brand of total rugby and have gone 19 games unbeaten. Tavistock now have two games remaining to make sure they finish the job and take the league title.

Top of table P W D L F A Pts

Tavistock 24 19 0 5 784 273 94

Honiton 24 17 0 5 667 318 91

Teignmouth 24 17 0 7 642 363 82

Withycombe 24 14 2 8 490 374 72