ON paper, this is going to go down as a disastrous opening day defeat for Tavistock, who last season avoided the drop by the skin of their teeth.

But bizarrely, the 44-point battering was far from as bad as it sounds.

Tavistock looked far stronger than the relegation-threatened outfit they were last season. But for a tendency to make basic mistakes, which can hopefully be swiftly cured, the home team might have finished far closer to the visitors than the scoreline suggests as Kingsbridge scored four of their tries from those errors.

The west Devon side's failure to organise properly after losing the ball cost them a converted try after just five minutes.

Just three minutes later, Tavistock were back in it after playing some impressive multi-phased rugby.

Kingsbridge conceded a penalty well within the range of Richard West, who expertly slotted it over.

What happened next belonged more properly in the pages of fantasies like Jack the Giant Killer or Snow White.

Two minutes later, Kingsbridge scored their second converted try of the game, followed by a third on 14 minutes to make the score an extremely surreal 21-3.

Still Tavvy probed at the Kingsbridge defence and should have seriously reduced their deficit when they switched the ball from right to left, with Danny Luffman lurking in a position from which he could not have failed to score.

Sadly for Luffman, probably Tavvy's best player on the pitch, the pass out to him was poorly executed and fell behind him.

Luffman's attempts to retrieve the ball only led to him being flattened by the recovering Kingsbridge defence.

Tavistock, who had pretty well allowed Kingsbridge to waltz through their defence for their first tries, managed to keep the visitors out until the 30th minute, when Kingsbridge kicked a penalty.

West hit his second penalty of the match to slightly reduce Tavistock's arrears, but almost immediately Kingsbridge walked in another try, then another.

The home side had a mountain to negotiate, 38-6 down at the break, but the threatened landslide from Kingsbridge was averted by vastly improved tackling in the second half.

It was only at the end, with time running out and Tavistock's doom sealed, that the visitors struck again, one of their two tries being converted.

Mike Lewis, who has joined Tavistock's coaching team after a serious knee injury ended his Plymouth Albion career, had every excuse for being downbeat after watching his new team apparently pummelled in his first match. Lewis, however, had a different view of the game.

He said afterwards: "I was very happy with the performance, even though we lost.

"For the first 20 minutes, we played really well and at times they (Kingsbridge) looked like they were going to break down.

"But we made errors that cost us the game and, in a few weeks, things will look different after we've had time to work on them.

"They only created one or two of their tries, but the rest were down to our errors.

"We'll work on things we need to work on before our game with Newquay Hornets next week and hopefully, we'll be looking for a win."

Tavistock coach Steve Luffman added: "It was frustrating because but for our errors, we were close to giving them a run for their money. Credit to Kingsbridge, they were on their game and sharp as usual, but the match highlighted the areas we need to work on and obviously will."

Wellington...31 Devonport Services...17

DEVONPORT Services met their opening-day Waterloo at Wellington — but coach Trevor Brazier admitted last term's most improved team were not at their best.

Services stayed within two points of their hosts for most of the contest, but slipped up in the last five minutes to hand last season's Cornwall/Devon champions two tries and the victory.

The Plymouth outfit's loss was far less damaging than it could have been against a team which stuck an average of 50 points – and sometimes more – on virtually every opponent they met. However, Brazier said he had a blunt conversation with his team after the game, which Services had taken by the scruff of the neck with tries by Josh Theophanides and Carl Ranscombe, who opened up his tally by getting on the end of a sweeping move. Matt Anstis kicked the rest of Services' points.

The Services' coach said: "With five minutes to go, we were only two points behind and I thought we might have a chance of winning.

"But we missed an easy penalty and they got two tries right at the end.

"All right, we had a pack which we had to put together at the last minute because of various injuries, but I was disappointed because we didn't show what we could do.

"I know, however, that it will get better."

Tavistock...6 Kingsbridge...50

Results

Western Counties West: Okehampton 20 N Petherton 0, Penryn 41 Newquay H 5, Tavistock 6 Kingsbridge 50, Tiverton 3 Exeter Sar 24, Torquay Ath 49 Burnham-on-Sea 7, Truro 62 Bude 7, Wellington 31 Devonsport S 17.

Cornwall/Devon: Hayel 13 St Austell 18, Saltash 26 Roseland 28, Stithians 22 Honiton 26, Teignmouth 3 Liskeard-Looe 7, Torrington 14 Falmouth 16, Totnes 27 Crediton 18, Withycombe 13 Bideford 29.