Taunton RFC 19 - 6 Barnstaple

What a humdinger! A full on, end to end battle with no quarter asked or given between table toppers Barnstaple and third placed Taunton.

The under-10s of both clubs provided the curtain raiser - Taunton scored three excellent tries in the 15-10 defeat of the North Devonians. An omen?

A month ago, Taunton had knocked a below full strength Barnstaple out of the cup, 29-6. This time the visitors fielded their strongest side and Taunton were close to theirs.

Barnstaple kicked off with a stiff breeze at their backs and immediately conceded a penalty, the first of fifteen in the first half with another 10 to follow in the second session.

Taunton kicked ball away in the early stages, not perhaps the wisest choice, with the away backs constantly running it back. Barnstaple squandered several scoring opportunities including a flop-over set up by Snowy Scheres' mesmeric run from his own 22.

They had plenty of possession, with the exception of losing several of their lineouts to Taunton's salmon jumper, skipper Pieter Tosen, but the home defence shut them out with aggressive tackling. Two of note came from Simon Martin and Ben Moon.

The place kickers missed a penalty each before they succeeded. Neil Giddy slotted one for Barum and Jon Martin an equaliser for Taunton just before the break.

A yellow card preceded each award - James Lamb and Simon Watkins the culprits.

4 minutes into the second half Martin put Taunton ahead and shortly after converted Alan Gill's try, set up by Hamish Reeves' tap penalty which caught the visitors napping.

Giddy reduced the deficit to one score with his second penalty but Barnstaple were constantly being turned by Martin's fine line-kicking as he threaded the ball through and over the defensive line.

They were being forced to chase the game, but couldn't find a way through the watertight Taunton cover.

Martin again punished the visitors on the hour, his third penalty taking him past 100 points for the season and he put icing on the cake with a well struck drop goal 10 minutes from the end.

There was still time for North Midlands referee Frazer Colley to sin bin Taunton's Tom O'Keefe and for a final sprint from deep by Scheres but he was cut down by Ben Rudkin to underline Taunton's move into second place behind new league leaders Exmouth.

Match sponsors: Clydesdale Bank and TRFC Former Players' Association

Bill Luckett