EXETER ATHLETIC 22 - NORTH TAWTON 29

NORTH Tawton Rugby Club travelled to the home of Exeter Athletic for their first game since beating Crediton a month ago, so long ago in fact it feels like a different season.

This fixture itself was rearranged because of a flooded pitch on the initial date, thankfully all dried out now.

While expectations were high in the North Tawton camp, some held a view the Tawts could be a little rusty after such a long layoff, but with the first try scored by James Miller in the first three minutes from a very powerful start from North Tawton, and the kick added by Jack Phare, this gave the visitors a 0-7 lead.

That allayed some worries, but in fairness to Exeter it didn't quite work like that because while North Tawton never looked like losing the match they sure as hell made hard work of winning it.

No disrespect to Athletic but the long lay off did show in the handling and general cohesion of a team needing to play every week of the season.

Athletic hit back with a penalty of their own, 3-7.

This sparked the Tawts into life again with some good running rugby with good safe hands and Jack Phare going over for a try.

He missed his own kick to take us to 3-12 into the break.

The second half saw some good play after a fired up team talk but some indifferent play by North Tawton saw Athletic pull it back to 8-12.

This game could turn out to be a banana skin if Tawton don’t watch it.

But, when the need arises, the ever dependable Si Quick comes up with a telling, the try conversion by Jack Phare giving Tawton a bit of breathing space, 8-19.

This is soon followed by the captain’s try from Ryan Goss, albeit with a missed kick, the Tawts go further ahead and surely the win 8-24.

Athletic are not giving up quite yet, their heads never dropped all game and out of nowhere they get their second try of the match, with the kick added, bringing them right back into the game, 15-24.

We head into the last minutes of the game with the away supporters really just waiting for the referee to blow up, but still time for Tom Stevens to get North Tawton’s fifth try, missed kick, 15-29.

But that's still not it, the ball ends up from the restart down in Tawton’s red zone as almost as a timely reminder that they won't lie down at home.

Athletic push over for their third try, plus the conversion, giving us the final score of 22-29, bonus points for both sides.

I think the players themselves would admit it was not their best performance of the season but it has to be said to their credit they ground out a win.

It was only the last try from the home team that flattered the scoreboard, it was not that long ago Tawton might have lost that game here, hoping for no more postponed games.

Christopher Phare