Sat 4 Sep 2021
Hornets were looking to start their league campaign with a win at home, but unfortunately Tavistock hadn’t read the script. Hornets starting with some outstanding attack to their game and looks very dangerous with ball in hand, they moved the Tavistock side around the field and within minutes had exploited space they had created out wide for Kris Evans to score in the corner. Hornets with 5-0 lead went looking for more but from a turnover the Tavistock scrum half spotted that nobody was home in the back field for the Hornets, a clever kick and chase, despite a very favourable bounce, resulted in a try for the Tavistock 9, which he also converted for a 5-7 lead. This seemed to really affect the Hornets and put them off their stride, which led to several unforced errors and turnovers. Tavistock scrum was gaining dominance throughout the half, which the Hornets captain questioned the ref on a few times about the angles of the visiting props, but fair play to Tavi they played the referee very well and territorial advantage and scrums led to two more tries for them before the end of the first half. Trailing 21-5 at half time, the Hornets had to chase the game and try and keep the pace into the game, which seemed impossible as every 2-3 minutes there was a stoppage for injuries. This thwarted a lot of the second half and slowed the game down considerably which suited the Tavistock forwards. Hornets did manage a sustained attack and were rewarded when skipper Jack Doswell went over from close range, which was converted by Aaron Simmonds to make the score 12-21. Hornets started dominating territory and possession now and clawed themselves back into the game with 9 minutes remaining, with a try by Jack Morrison, this time converted by Liam Freeman to make it 19-21. Hornets then had to defend for their lives inside their own 22 and did well to hold out, but unfortunately the clock was against them and they simply couldn’t get the field position they needed to launch another attack. Hornets showed glimpses though of what they can do and if they can tidy up a few areas before next weeks trip to Topsham, they will travel with confidence. Coach comments “at the end of the day we can’t blame the ref, we made hard work of it ourselves and unfortunately in any league, if you make that many errors, you are going to get punished. What was pleasing was keeping our line intact for the second half and scoring twice ourselves. We will have learned from today and hopefully get a chance to put things right next week on the road”.
