Tops downed by strong Salcombe club side.

A Salcombe 'club' side, which contained more than half a dozen first team members arrived at Bonfire Field claiming uncontested scrums on account of having no competitive front row players. This despite having several players who certainly looked like front rowers and were, in-fact larger than Topsham's established props!

This immediately put Topsham on the back foot as it nullified probably their two biggest weapons of a powerful scrimmage and a strong back row.

Thus appeared to come home to roost very quickly as Topsham conceded the opening score within 90 seconds!

The score quickly became fourteen nil as Topsham's reshuffled starting line-up failed to get to grips with its defensive patterns.

However, after some strong words from both the skipper and several senior players, Topsham soon woke up, stopped over-committing at the ruck area and started to build momentum. A good 15-20 minutes of attack was rewarded when Olly Scott bundled his way over from short range to open Topsham's account. The try was not converted. Half time score 5-14.

The second half started brightly with Topsham on the attack and Olly Scott soon sored again to finish off some good attacking phases from the pack. This try was converted by Rob Busby.

However, Topsham then fell asleep in defence and conceded a quick try around the outside.

To their credit however, Topsham soon picked themselves up and a sustained period of pressure was finished off by a try from Harry Smale after a sweet inside-out running line and offload from fly half Paul Ferris. Pulling the score back to 19-19 with ten minutes to go.

Sadly, Salcombe's squad of, mostly, centres, proved to strong in attack and scored two more tries before the end to give a final score-line of 19-37, which, neither team truly deserved.

A good test for Topsham 2nds against a strong side. Again a small lack of precision and falling asleep in defence, particularly after scoring, cost them dear.

However, on the positive side; another solid pack performance, not least a strong notable outing from Nathan Bowley and a consummate number 7 showing from eventual man of the match Lawrence Painter.