THE early phases of this match were full of endeavour and good 15-man rugby by North Tawton but marred by too many penalties.

This meant they had nothing to show for their hard work and Buckfastleigh took the early points with a try from a hack through and a penalty kick. This gave them a lead of 8-0 after about 15 minutes.

North Tawton kept their positive play and a neat break by Rob North at fly half opened up the Buckfastleigh line only for the ball to be knocked down by a Buckfast hand as they reached the 10 metre line.

Player-coach Paul Turner took a good lineout ball which was passed to David Fewings. The scrum half took the narrow side and fed out to Tawton captain Keith Jones on the left wing, but he was forced into touch by the covering defence.

Finally, the positive play was rewarded with a quick tap penalty and the ball was fed to Mike Young, playing at outside centre. He stepped back inside and raced through for a well-taken try. The conversion was beautifully struck by David Fewings to take the score to 7-8 in favour of Buckfastleigh.

Shortly afterwards a stunning break by Young took him 70 metres through the struggling defence.

As they closed in he popped a pass to supporting player Rob McBain and then took the return pass to complete his second try. This was not converted, but shortly before the half-time whistle further North Tawton pressure forced a penalty from Buckfastleigh on their 22 metre line which Fewings slotted neatly. The half closed with the score at 15-8 to Tawton.

Another penalty early in the second half by Fewings extended the lead and the solid performance of the Tawton scrum forced the Buckfast pack off their ball several times. They responded with a good spell of play and a dangerous break was stopped by a brave tackle from Tawton full back Bill Sharp and the ball was cleared.

From Tawton's own 22 metre area it was a break by centre Mike Young which carved up the Buckfast line and a hand off took him through to score his hat trick try with another