Brixham 20 - 0 Exmouth

Exmouth suffered only their second defeat in the League this year to a Brixham side that put in what was regarded as their best display of the season. With both Taunton and Barnstaple winning, Exmouth now only have a 3 point lead at the top of the League table.

The Brixham team were well up for this game having already lost to the Cockles twice this year. The home side took the game to Exmouth straight from the kick off and it was almost 10 minutes before Exmouth managed to get their hands on the ball. This early pressure by the Fishermen resulted in several penalties by the away team. Fortunately, Ben Lovell missed the only opportunity to kick at goal.

Exmouth attacked up the field and following a good driving maul they were awarded a penalty. Unfortunately the attempt to take the lead fell wide.

The Brixham pressure continued mainly as a result of Exmouth giving away too many penalties. On a rare excursion into the Brixham 22, Exmouth had a chance to take the lead but the put in at the line out was not straight and Brixham cleared their lines. After 25 minutes a fine blind side break by Jack Downie brought the Cockles to within a chance of scoring a try but from the ruck situation Exmouth gave away a further penalty and the scoring opportunity was gone.

After 2 more penalties against the Exmouth team, Brixham took the lead with a Ben Lovell penalty kick in front of the posts giving Brixham a 3-0 lead at the break.

Straight from the kick off, Exmouth were again under pressure and a failed touchline kick by the Cockles resulted in a counter-attack by the Fishermen for center Jake Lawrence to burst through the Exmouth defence and score under the posts, Lovell converting.

Exmouth tried their hardest to gain some decent first phase possession but problems at the scrum and line out made this extremely difficult. On one of the rare occasions the Cockles did have good clean ball the backs showed that they had the pace and determination to get back in the game. The penalty count against the Cockles mounted and Lovell increased the Brixham lead further with another successful penalty making it 13-0 with 20 minutes to go.

The Exmouth team continued to live off scraps of possession and finally succumbed to a further converted try by Peter Chart in the dying minutes of the game.

This was perhaps the wake up call that the team needed with still 5 league games to go.