With the sun shining, it was a perfect day for some rugby at Raleigh Park. Heading downfield in the first half; Withy enjoyed a lot of the early possession, spending large amounts of the opening quarter within the North Tawton half, even when defending, the boys managed to keep the visitors largely pinned in home territory. With the twenty-minute mark approaching, Withy had the opportunity to go ahead with a kick at goal, but when the ball slipped from the tee moments from impact, the intended kick fell short of the mark as it bobbled under the posts.
This didn’t deter the lads though as they continued to work hard in the sunshine. With the visitors finding their feet within the game, they themselves had some good time with the ball and began to threaten a score in our 22’, but when it came to scrum time, the Withy pack dominated, drawing the penalty and eventually clearing the lines to relieve the pressure.
With the Withy forwards looking strong, North Tawton tried to use their backs to good effect, but when a short-range pass was beautifully intercepted by Ben Bolwell, the turn of pace came, and the scrum half ran half the length of the field to score under the posts. Harry Symons’ conversion sailed through the posts to put the hosts 7-0 in the lead, a lead which they took through to half time.

With the second half underway, possession was more equally shared, with the middle third of the field playing host to most of the action throughout the third quarter of the match.
However, whilst defending from 8m out North Tawton thought they had a great chance of scoring when a break by the visiting player saw him run the entire length of the field and celebrate his score – unbeknownst to him though, the referee had already blown the whistle immediately after the breakaway, making the run null and void and Withy could breathe a sigh of relief.
North Tawton were fired up by this near-score and began to put on some real pressure, however it was the boys in green and black would be back on the scoresheet next when a great clearing run from Sam Warren made room for Lewis Vaughan to receive the pass and beat the final two defenders in the race for the line and score in the corner, Symons’ touchline conversion just skimmed the posts, keeping the points at 5 but opening up the gap to 12-0.
This wasn’t to last though as in the final ten minutes, Withy stamina started to drop, and the effective defending became less potent, this led to three penalties against them and an opportunity for the visitors to work through the phases in the red zone and eventually score a converted try on 76 minutes.
We’d hope this would still be enough with so little on the clock but, with the game well into added time and the clock in the red, two more penalties were conceded and North Tawton were once again knocking at the door, eventually scoring in the corner. The conversion attempt sailed wide to bring the scores level as the final whistle blew.
Final score: Withycombe 12, North Tawton 12.

Withies are back on the road next week as they make the long journey down to Camborne to face Veor in what will be a tricky final away fixture of the season. Kick off 3pm.