Thanks to Tavistock for hosting us at short notice.

Match report by Alex Shilton.
This week the Dem’port Under 12’s ventured North to the foot of the rolling Dartmoor moors, hosted at the last minute by the fabulous Tavistock RFC. Firstly, huge thanks for pulling out all the stops to look after and cater for a large number of Devonport Youth, Junior and Mini squads.
The weather held out, remaining grey but not a single drop of rain fell from the sky. Polar opposites from last week which looked more like a game of extremely aggressive water polo than it did a gathering of grassroots rugby.
The lurgy had done its best to keep the numbers low, Tavi managing to raise ten players to Devonport’s twelve. We must also throw some thanks out to the local farmer who kindly lent out one of their fields this morning so the two teams could chuck the ball around for forty minutes.
Once everyone had shaken the cobwebs out during the warmup the coaches came to the agreement of ten a side to enable as many lads getting game time as possible.

Devonport deciding to play up the slight hill that the pitch had to offer during the first half got off to a great start, receiving a high ball from the kick off recycling the ball well through a few phases and then spinning the ball wide to Olly O on the left wing channel enabling him to beat the last defender and open his long legs down the wing for the first of a few try’s he was to run in this morning.

Large passages of pressure led to another try for Olly O, this time finishing off some great defensive pressure work from Freddie S at the base of the scrum, hassling the opposition fly half and giving him no time on the ball. Aided in the tackle by Harrison O the ball spilled out close to the Tavistock try line and Olly O’s quick thinking saw him dot down close range.
Tavistock scored quickly from the next restart. A strong rip during the tackle and some loose cover in behind saw them run through the middle and certainly gave the Devonport lads something to think about.
Again, the lads had to dig deep as they did last week, with only two substitutes to choose from and John B still feeling extremely under the weather, the boys didn’t have reinforcements queuing up to get on!

The front row put another shift in, Tristan H, Billy E and Tommy R fronting up in the loose and in the tight around the pitch. Tristan H left it all out on the field sadly doing himself a mischief to his ankle and having to be replaced shortly before half time. Tommy R finishing off a well worked forwards try crashing over from the base of a ruck in the tight confines of the try line area. Billy E ran some good supporting lines and was unlucky not to go over himself had he not been tackled into touch by a fine covering tackle from a Tavistock defender.
Twenty minutes of the first half went on well into the added time, Devonport giving away a large number of free kicks for a few different infringements mainly offside, something that will need to be rectified in training during the new year. However, they managed to hold out and against the run of play managed to turn the later period on its head scoring a breakaway try to see out the first half.

A quick team talk at halftime saw the boys keen to get back out onto the field, the injury that had occurred to Tristan H saw a slight change to the lineup, Freddie S taking a knock to the knee received some heavy strapping and dropped to full-back to ensure he wasn’t as involved in the action. Charlie C stepped back into scrum half and slotted in nicely producing quick clean ball at ruck time along with his wicked tackles in defence. Some fantastic punchy runs came in from Jasper R one of them producing a classy try from the young man.
Inoke “Noks” expressing himself nicely with some quality footwork from deep within in his own half enabling him to cut through the defensive line that would have had Semi Radradra himself raising an eyebrow! Noks’ tricky yet aggressive runs helped him notch up two try’s of his own as the second half unfolded.

The boys continued to pressure Tavistock; Seb E was relentless in defence this morning. His tackle count through the roof and his ability to offload quickly in attack produced some great try scoring opportunities for Dylan W. Dylan W on a few occasions found himself flying down the wing and would have surely found himself getting over for a few tries himself had it not been for some great last ditch tackles from the home side.
Harrison O played out of his skin this morning with some strong carries, fierce tackles and extremely brave under the high ball, of which there were many that he had to defuse.
The game ended with a deserved second try from Tavistock, a punchy close range well worked try that came from a team although up against it today never once gave up and showed some true grit and determination considering they were missing some of their key runners this morning.

Support on the sidelines was second to none this morning, some awesome comments from both sets of supporters and a joy to watch some decent young lads throwing the ball around.
Devonport celebrated hard in the changing rooms, some of the Cornish members of the team throwing down a victory Oggie Oggie Oggie, before enjoying a well earned warm shower.

The team sheet.: Dylan W, Billy E, Charlie C, John B, Freddie S, Harrison O, Inkoe N, Seb E, Jasper R, Oliver O, Tommy R, Tristan H.
Try scorers: Tommy R (1), Oliver O (7), Jasper R (1), Inoke N (2).