Tavistock U18s girls 39

Winscombe U18s girls 15

LITTLE was known by Tavistock girls about the Winscombe rugby girls under 18 team, which was newly formed although their under 15s have won the South West Cup.

With Winscombe playing with the wind in the first half, they moved the ball well using their well drilled three quarters. Six minutes into the game their speedy centre outflanked the Tavistock defence to sprint to the line.

Tavistock spent the rest of the match chasing the speedster to eliminate the threat but she did twice more to score all of the visitors' points.

The home side played to its strengths with possibly the best three forwards in the south west Chloe Dawe, Kim Upcott and Kaitlyn Bridge dominating the open game — forcing their way through the opposing pack and pouncing to snap up loose ball.

With the initial five point deficit, Tavistock took charge and forced their way up the middle of the pitch. A smart offload to Bridge allowed her to power over the line for the first of her two tries.

Next to score was Kim Upcott and Hannah Morris duly added the points. Ebony Jefferies who was ably leading the inexperienced backs fought her way over to make the score 17-5 at half time.

With the wind behind them, Tavistock broke down the final vestiges of Winscome forward resistance with a powerful try from Kim Upcott and this was soon followed by one from Ebony Jeffries — these deflated the visitors and the game was now only 'one way traffic'.

What the backs lacked in experience, they made up for with strong running and energy. Thea Crosby broke two tackles before being brought to ground. The ball was recycled and with with great footwork Thea managed to stay in play and break through to score in the corner.

Hannah Morris was unlucky not to score on three occasions but she did convert two of the tries. Zoe Pluckrose was solid in defence and carried the ball well.

This was a bruising encounter, but the Tavistock girls were up to the task and eventually ran out easy winners.