Tavistock 2nds Vs Salcombe

On an afternoon that began cold and became glacial the Crabs negotiated a tricky away match against a Tavistock team who had run many teams close on their own patch this season. Credit first to Tavistock who had the done well in unfavourable weather conditions to produce a playable pitch when their first team pitch was submerged under several inches of water.
 
Playing down the sizeable slope and with the wind behind them the travelling Crabs tried to make the circumstances count in their favour and began aiming to pin their posts in their own half with territorial kicking and direct running. One such occasion saw centre Jordan Anderton channel his inner Lebron James and smash through a narrow gap to “dot” down just next to the upright doing very well to control the ball as he did so. Salcombe scored again shortly after when another long kick into the back field caused some confusion amongst the defence leading to a loose ball kicked through and gathered by Anderton to get his second of the day. Tavi mounted a fightback at this point and strong running by their impressive number 8 appeared to catch the defenders off guard, fortunately the resulting attacking line out was well defended and cleared back the way it had originally come from. Salcombe ended the half strongly, a trademark interception from wing Oli Masters made valuable yards into the Tavistock half, offloading to Toby Woods who was unlucky not to score himself before being dragged down just before the line only to off load again this time to George Willmott to crash over. A 0 – 17 lead for the visitors but would it be enough now that the pitch had lost any semblance of traction, the wind was against them and going up hill for 40 minutes?

To begin with at least it looked as if defending their lead might be a tall order as Tavi got on the score board early on with a converted try. This revival was short lived however as the Salcombe were able to respond quickly with a try scored and converted by Lee Clarke, this was added to a short while later after a quickly tapped penalty was given to Dom Loomes who went over the line unchallenged from a short distance out. As the Dartmoor light was beginning to fade and the increasingly frozen players and spectators were looking at their watches there was still time for one last attack. Jay Hannaford appearing from a breakdown as if from nowhere with ball in hand ascending the gradient and catching all defenders off guard, just before taking the contact he passed to Anderton grasping the ball tightly to complete his hattrick and bring about the final whistle.
 
Salcombe would like to thank Tavistock for their hospitality and for their efforts to produce a viable playing surface and the few brave Crab supporters who made the trip. Notable Performances were from the front row trio of Dan Sinnott, Toby Woods and Jay Hannaford who took every opportunity at scrum time whilst turning lineouts into a real weapon with and without the ball to gain territory and steal possession. Man of the match however went to “Michael” Jordan Anderton for his well taken scores and dominant defending this despite dereliction of jug buying duty. Another break week next week before a final run of 4 fixtures including the Easter weekend matches and 7’s competition.