TOTNES 26 - NORTH TAWTON 39

NORTH Tawton travelled to Totnes in the first round of the Papa John’s Cup and came away with what turned out to be a comfortable win, the Tawts scoring four tries in the first 35 minutes.

A confident North Tawton went at their host full bore right from the start, the forwards and backs combining well to punch holes in the Totnes defence, a rare off day with the boot limited the scoreboard at times but it was of no bother with the tries coming thick and fast.

With the scoreboard standing at 24-nil, with half time beckoning, Totnes give themselves a glimmer of hope with a converted try of their own taking us into half-time, 7-24.

The next 40 minutes seemed to start where we left off, North Tawton adding to their try tally 7-29 but now playing down hill with the wind behind them.

Totnes were not quite ready to lie down, they got another converted try and it was 14-29, not the done deal yet for Tawton.

The penalty count started to creep into the North Tawton play, all this doing was giving the Totnes side a slight foothold into the game.

The penalty count is something North Tawton will need to address if they want to advance in this competition.

A quick exchange of tries gets us to 19-34 and then from the restart a well-caught ball from the kickoff and North Tawton run in their last try of the afternoon, 19-39.

The last word went to the home team who scored their fourth try giving us a final score, 26-39.

North Tawton move into the next round of the Papa John’s Cup with no fear who the next opposition is but must keep that penalty tally down.

Chris Phare