Tribute Devon two

Dartmouth RFC 12,

If ever there was a game of two halves, this was it writes Jeff Hunt.

Andy Williams was in his last game (yeah right) for Dartmouth, 'Evergreen' having de­cided the games were taking longer to get over than in his youth.

Dartmouth started off brightly, but through all their efforts in the first three minutes they found themselves down by seven points.

Richard Lobb restarted the game and within a minute Tawts were on the scoreboard again, taking the score to 14-0.

Dartmouth re­group­ed and a tactical switch from coaches Lee Chase and Chris Chater stem­med the flow and Dar­tmouth started to play with belief.

Xavier Picot, Andy Williams, Tom Clarke and John Dingle all came close to breaching the stubborn Tawts' de­fence.

But Dartmouth found themselves down again after North Tawton piled the pressure on and Dartmouth went in at half-time 49-0 down.

The second half started off even better for Dartmouth when they finally converted a chance into a try.

Carl Kaunter, sprinting down the left wing, passed the ball to Andy Williams and Williams put Tom Clarke in for a well-worked try with just two minutes of the second half gone and Richard Lobb getting the extras.

Dartmouth came close on other occasions in the second half, but were thwarted by the Tawts defence again and again.

North Tawton caught Dartmouth on the counter and hit back with try number eight of the afternoon, but Dartmouth weren't done yet and Williams set up another try, this time Carl Kaunter going over under the posts and Richard Lobb converting.

Try as they might, Dartmouth couldn't get another try and North Tawton ended the game with yet another try and the game finished 61-12 in Tawts' favour.

Dartmouth can take a lot from this game and although the score looks bad it wasn't all one-way traffic, all Dartmouth need to do next season is tighten up at the back and the tries will come.

This was Dart­mouth's last game at home, but Dartmouth are starting up a youth team for next year and pre-season training is due to start in four weeks.

All of this will be depending on the decision from South Hams Council on the park and ride proposal, as South Hams Council want to use the pitch as an overflow car park.