Exe rugby fans were treated to a thrilling battle between two sides that came to play in the Devon spring sunshine. The lead changed hands ten times and a late score from Exmouth gave them one final shot in the last few minutes to pinch the win. Fresh off their Devon cup win Exmouth showed no signs of a hangover, although we scored the game's opener they came flying back at us to score two in four minutes to go ahead. Both sides scored three in the first half with the only difference a missed Exmouth conversion. Our narrow two point lead was wiped out quickly in the second period as a mix up following a poor pass and subsequent knock on led to some offside confusion allowing an Exmouth player to go three quarters of the length to score. A second misfortune came our way when we missed a simple three pointer to tie the game but this time it was we who benefitted. From the drop out we found space for a fourth only once again to see the lead taken away from us via Exmouth's boot minutes later....26-27. However with a man advantage and his time up just waiting for a break in play to come back on we forced ourselves over again via Batty's second. The game's decisive moment came five minutes later when for the first time since Exmouth scored two in a row in the first 15 we were able to double down on our try by grabbing another via a lovely team score. Now leading 40-27 we were still well aware of the fact it was only a two score advantage. Exmouth threw everything at us and we did the hardwork for large periods but a knock on from an attacking scrum in our own 22 gifted the visitors a chance when they least expected it. This time they needed no second invitations and courtesy of a touchline conversion they cut the margin to just six with three minutes left to play. From the restart some overeagerness on the floor was followed up by talking back and Exmouth would get one final shot to win it at the death. Any hopes they had were sniffed out quickly though by a soaring Edbrooke who pinched the lineout ball. From there we kept things tight eventually kicking it clear for a pulsating win.

Tries:
T.Van Dyk x 2, H.Batty x 2, S.Westcott, M.Hammond
Conv:
J.Mattin x 5