Brixham 22 - 14 Exmouth

This developing Exmouth team have not travelled well in the past and at Torquay, the previous week, were caught out by an early try from the hosts. In training and during the match build up time was spent developing a game plan from the kick off to avoid what had turned out to be a costly score.

There was a positive buzz amongst the team and a when the whistle blew we could not have imagined the feats of rugby both sides would provide.

In the first half Exmouth played up the slop, on what was a very heavy pitch. The wet weather must have kept the mowers indoors.

Despite the heaviness and slope the initial encounters favoured Exmouth with some outstanding forward work driving close to the Brixham line on several occasions only for the final phase to break down and allow Brixham to clear their lines.

Brixham had their moments during this opening period but the Exmouth forwards quickly wrapped up their attack to set up a solid platform to exert more pressure. Tom Caygill was a veritable tackling machine, during this phase, showing great determination in covering ground to make telling tackles.

The pressure paid off after once again driving to the Brixham line the ball handling of the backs was rewarded when Shaun Fayter, at fly-half, saw a gap and danced passed several defenders to score under the posts. Kevin Rodwell stepped up to add the extra points.

The first half contest continued to be hard, but fair, and the referee helped make this an enjoyable match for both teams and spectators.

The Exmouth side was buzzing and still with the slope continue to ask questions of the Brixham defence with a combination of enthusiastic handling errors and infringements preventing a scoring reward.

Against the run of play Brixham made a break from their own half and went over to score close to the posts and with a penalty the half score saw Exmouth trailing by 10-7.

The team spirit was high, and with the advantage of the slope, the second half had the potential to see Exmouth clinch a win. Unfortunately this week they were caught by two early tries in the second-half which put the game just out of their reach. The same commitment and effort was still evident and again the half was dominated by Exmouth, but failed to converts good positions into points. Terry Mears came close, as did Sam Bull, but just not enough to get the points needed.

John Parkin had a great game at scrum-half and was buzzing around the scrum upsetting the play of his opposite number with Brixham receiving scrappy ball from scrums – were they narrowly had the advantage. Adam Morris made some charging runs to break the Brixham back-line.

At 22-7 down Exmouth did not give up and continued to chase the game with Terry Mears scoring wide out in the last action of the match. Another determined run saw him cross the line with two Brixham defenders trailing in his wake. From the left hand touchline Adam Morris gave a tremendous thud to convert to make the final score Brixham 22 – Exmouth 14.

This is a young Exmouth Colts team who are not overawed by their more experienced opponents. They play exciting rugby – which may today have cost them the game – but the promise is there of great things to come.