Victory extends Tivvy's lead at the top

9:38am Friday 17th March 2006

Cornwall/Devon League. Tiverton 30pts, St Austell 10 TIVERTON'S battling display at Tavistock last week was followed up by a comprehensive 30 -10 home victory over St Austell.

The game started with an uncharacteristic fumble from the kick off for the home side, but any perceived advantage the visitors may have taken from that was quickly eliminated when the Tiverton pack underlined its intention by shoving them off the ensuing scrum, laying down the marker for the rest of the match.

Tiverton then went on to dominate the opening exchanges, pegging St Austell back in their own half, and coming away from the first 15 minutes with two well taken penalty kicks from fly half Steve Cockram.

The impressive Tiverton scrum meant that St Austell were unable to make anything constructive from their set piece, and this area of Tiverton's game was put to use when they spurned a kickable penalty after 30 minutes, for a scrum five metres out.

Several scrums were set as the St Austell pack tried to negate the Tiverton advantage by collapsing or detaching, but the official from Launceston was having none of it, after a third time awarding a penalty try to the home side, which was converted by Cockram.

The front row exchanges also became a little heated, and after the second scrum collapsed, players from both sides came out swinging, and both tightheads received yellow cards.

St Austell had the last say in the half though, kicking a penalty just before the break to bring it back to 13-3, but with their contribution to the half mainly a defensive one, the game seemed wrapped up and in the bag for the home side.

Tiverton started the second half with intent, and Barney Bell came up with a brace of top drawer scores in the ensuing 15 minutes.

This made the score 23-3, and while signalling the end any realistic chance St Austell had to taking the match, it didn't end the spectacle.

While the home side seemed to relax a bit after the conversion, the visitors came out from the restart with a new found determination, and began to string together useful passages of play.

They started to find some holes in the previously tight Tiverton defence, and scored a good converted try of their own through winger Peter Crane.

Tiverton regained control for the final period of the match, and underlined their dominance by pinning the visitors back on their line.

Minutes before time skipper Graham Broom punched a hole in the midfield defence, and offloaded to Chanin who ran in unopposed to score under the posts.

The victory over one of the challenging sides was made all the better when news came in shortly after full time that second placed Falmouth had suffered a reverse against Devonport Services, meaning that Tiverton's lead at the top of the table was further extended, making next week's visit to the Services club in Plymouth a season defining match.

Tiverton's coach, Zane McCormack said: "Again this was a must win match for us in our title chase, as St Austell are the second club of the four directly below us in the league that we had to beat to maintain our position at the top.

"While two more points are always welcome, it was the manner in which we won them today that was the most pleasing. It was always going to be a real test of our character as a team to be able to reproduce the form that saw us come away with the excellent result we managed down in Tavistock the previous week.

"St Austell showed in patches what a dangerous side they can be when given time and space to run, but for a majority of the match we just didn't allow them that, and once we settled into our own patterns really showed just how dangerous our back three can be when given the opportunity.

"Our forwards were again fantastic, managing to completely outplay a much bigger opposing pack and laying down the foundations for this important win.

"We have four more matches left in the season, including a second successive trip to Plymouth next week to face OPMs before welcoming Falmouth to our place.

"This means that although we've managed to play ourselves into a strong position, it's still all to play for, and if we turn up for these matches with anything less than a good performance, it could just as easily result in coming away with nothing this year."