Tavistock U16s 28

Newton Abbot U16s 12

TAVISTOCK seem to have hit a bit of form going into the latter stages of the Fisherman's Cup competition, with an impressive win over a Newton side that had beaten them on two previous occasions this season.

It was never going to be a day for open running rugby; playing up the slope, into the wind and rain, the Tavistock forwards looked to take the game to their opposition.

Billy Rowe, Harry Jeans and Steve Kirby won the home side several turnovers and the powerful second row pairing of Cameron McKie and Scott Morris kept driving their team forward with ball in hand. George Murrain threw the ball in expertly to the lineout and despite the windy weather Tavistock gained good ground from their catch and drive. When they didn't have the ball Tavistock defended resolutely with centres James Lewis and Ethan Lamerton quickly onto their opponents and Ben Milligan at full back fielded some difficult kicks.

The visitors kept plugging away, however, and they opened the scoring to go in at half time 5-0 ahead.

In the second half, playing with the wind, Tavistock half backs Chris Watts and George Hillson kicked the ball deep into the Newton half. Going through several phases of play, with both forwards and backs taking short passes off the base of the ruck, Chris Watts was able to wriggle free and pop a nice pass to James Lewis. who scored under the posts. George Hillson converted.

More good driving play from the forwards led to several attempts at scoring being stopped short before Richard Cann busted his way over from short range. Hillson added the conversion.

Tavistock kept the pressure on and Will Trembath was unlucky not to score after a superb cross field kick from Ben Milligan.

Tavistock were guilty of switching off and against the run of play Newton got the ball to their quick footed winger who burst through from the Tavistock 22 metre line and scored under the posts. Fortunately for the home side scrum half George Hillson got the forwards' driving game going again and a series of attacks up the short side saw Theo Cousins break clear and dive over; Hillson added his third conversion.

In the last ten minutes Tavistock went chasing the bonus point score and again the forwards came up with the goods. Strong drives from Richard Cann and Ben Luke and good recycling created space for No 8 Billy Rowe to drive over and Hillson capped a fine kicking display with his fourth conversion from four in difficult conditions.

Okehampton U10s 70

South Molton U10s 5

THE combined match result is not a true reflection of the game as South Molton had greatly improved and seemed more organised than when the teams met earlier earlier in the season.

The Okehampton boys worked hard at their attack to break through what sometimes seemed to be an impenetrable defence. Captained by Will the Oke team drove forward in slippery and blowy conditions. Adam kept the pressure on close to the tryline to allow Shea through to get downward pressure on a ball to score the first try. Chris put in some great tackles whilst Ed held a steady driving force. After many attempts Will finally got through to score his try.

Josh passed to Saul for a well executed try, his first one of six — finding the gaps and barging his way through.

Josh played well, ducking and diving, but an injury forced him to retire from the game. Toby made his presence felt and switched around to get in the game. Lachs scored two tries, his second one superb. as he took off with the pack following him.

A lot of play was close to the visitors' try line and , an unselfish pass from Callum to Jacob enabled him to score.

Ben scooped a ball from the scrum, passed, switched and was able to accept the pass and offload again in a great move by him. Adam's long legs steamed the length of the pitch for one of his two tries while Shea was awarded his second try of the day.

Shortie and Flynn both kept pressure on making life difficult for the South Molton players; the former made some great catches and some tough tackles from the latter. South Molton did have a couple of injuries so Chris and Jacob 'switched sides' to help them out. It was a good all round team play from Okehampton.

Tavistock U10s

Torpoint Tigers U10s

UNPROMISING conditions greeted the teams with a strong wind blowing across a sodden pitch, but the home team were quickly into their stride against a newly formed Torpoint team still finding their feet.

Finn was first to score for Tavistock, slicing through the static Torpoint defensive line.  The next Torpoint attack ended in touch and from the restart Callum passed to Finn who passed back to Callum to send him through for the second.  

Torpoint were finding it difficult to get any forward momentum and in what was the best play of the match Max made the hard yards for Tavistock; his pass then found Luke at full speed on the loop to quickly outpace the defence to score again.  

Tavistock were quickly on the attack again.  This time Sam broke free from the tackles to cruise over for the fourth try.  Kitty was unlucky to get tackled into touch just before the line; meanwhile Callum's determined tackling continued to pay dividends as he and Finn disrupted the Torpoint play, before pouncing on a loose ball for Callum to score. 

It was one way traffic now, but the Torpoint team did not give up.  Callum passed to Luke when in a clear scoring position and then grabbed another try of his own after ripping the ball out of the hands of another Torpoint player.

For the second game the teams were mixed up with Luke, Seb, Callum and Chris joining the visitors.   James, muddied but determined, was first to score running straight through the middle of the Torpoint team, but Chris got the first try of the morning for the visitors, and Luke scored another before Matthew opened his account after dancing past Luke.

Seb took a great catch and showed true grit to push through the Tavistock defence, spinning out of a last ditch tackle to score.  Callum scored another and once again set up Luke for a try when he looked sure to score himself.    Matthew scored his second with another good run and as the teams began to run out of steam the gaps began to open:  Luke took a pass at the restart and ran straight across the try line, an in the last play of the game Matthew did exactly the same for the home team.