Taunton RFC 14 - 20 Newton Abbot

Taunton lost their unbeaten home league record to a much better Newton Abbot side than the one they defeated 17-15 in Devon two months ago.

The all Whites were down 11-3 at the break but produced a second half performance that nobody expected except, perhaps, their vocal supporters.

Taunton shone at scrummage time, taking three against the head and held their own in the lineouts. But they were completely outplayed in the loose and were far from firing on all cylinders in the backs.

In addition their positional kicking in the first half was not up to scratch and readily run back by the visitors' backs.

Ben Scott kicked an early penalty to put Newton Abbot on the board but Taunton's Jon Martin missed two before his third attempt levelled the scores on the half hour.

The Whites' No.8, man of the match Dave Kimberley, was yellow carded before the interval. Martin kicked the penalty and in Kimberley's absence, in the last play of the half, winger David Webber crashed over the try line with two defenders hanging onto him.

4 minutes into the second session Martin completed his hat trick of penalties and it looked like game over but Newton Abbot had other ideas.

A powerful series of pick and drives took the visitors close to the home try line where Taunton conceded a penalty. Making amends for his earlier indiscretion, Kimberley snatched the ball, tapped and dived over. Scott converted.

With 20 minutes left, Newton Abbot were again down to 14 men when flanker Ben Sangchi was sin binned but it made no difference. They turned Taunton over, broke out and 80 metres downfield winger Alex Moore capped a sweeping handling move with a touchdown, close enough to the posts for Scott to convert.

Taunton could not find a way through the aggressive defence and were finally finished off by probably the best run of pick and drives seen at Hyde Park. It lasted for 5 minutes of stoppage time, eventually ending under the home posts where Scott calmly stroked a penalty to complete the action.

Bill Luckett