Withy's season ends with dismal defeat to North Tawton

Withy hosted North Tawton in their final league match of the season and, despite the building wind of Storm Kathleen, there was an air of hope that Withy could end their season on a positive note.

As the Withies weathered early pressure from the visitors, they managed to earn the turnover penalty and began to head downfield.

With just five minutes on the clock, Withy almost had the opening score, but with the ball being lost forward just before the line, there was a let off for North Tawton early on.

The boys kept up the pressure but were unable to convert this into any points.

One opportunity saw them stopped just before the line with a high tackle, with the ball eventually being turned over.

Very much against the run of play, it was to be North Tawton that would score first following their first real period of play inside the Withy 22’.

Thankfully, a quick response from the boys saw them soon over the line themselves with Jack Sharland crashing over just minutes after entering the field.

The try also saw the North Tawton winger sent to the sin bin for his efforts in preventing the score.

Just three minutes later, Withy were ahead after a fabulous chip kick from Tom Cooke evaded the hands of Tawton’s defender and was dropped into free space behind the try line where the awaiting Lewis Tose launched on the ball to put Withy 10-7 ahead after 25 minutes.

Some luck became misfortune when captain Luke Pattison was shown yellow after a tackle was deemed too high.

With the visitors back up to fifteen players, they were soon down a player once again after their open-side flanker was sin-binned for an off-the-ball punch – another game would’ve seen the same offence penalised with a red card.

Being reduced in numbers didn’t thwart their attack however, as they managed one more try in the final play of the half to go into the break 10 – 14 ahead.

The second half saw a carbon-copy of playing style from Tawton as the short, flat passes caused problems for the Withy defence as they managed to evade the tackles to score.

Following the score, Withy gained the upper hand again, and following a prolonged passage of play inside the North Tawton 22’, they were rewarded with a third try as Ben West broke free of his defender on the left wing to score under the posts, a Lewis Tose conversion brought the score to 17-21.

Hero turned villain shortly after as Mr West was then sent to the sin bin after dropping the interception ball and being penalised for a deliberate knock-on on the Withy 5m line.

From such short range and now back with the numerical advantage, the visitors struck again to extend their lead.

Withy continued to battle back though but were again denied through a high seatbelt tackle.

With no further points scored, the game finished with the final score Withycombe 17, North Tawton 28.

A disappointing final fixture, but one that would sum-up the latter stages of the season with bad luck and some ill-advised decisions costing valuable points.

However, the boys remain safe for the season and can look forward to a fresh start again in our centennial season of 2024/25 in September.

Next up though is the Devon Junior Shield, which will see them play Torquay in a two-leg semi-final, the first of which will take place at Raleigh Park next weekend.