Buoyed by a solid, yet unlucky, result the previous week, Topsham 2nds made the short trip across the city to the home of historical rivals Exeter Saracens.

The match started with a recently unstitched Topsham skipper watching from the sidelines, a first start for Simon Rushworth and the long awaited return of the experienced Tony Davies after two years away from competitive rugby following a knee injury.

Saracens started strongly and Topsham spent the predominance of the first half on the defensive, although did have several breakaway chances which, frustrating, broke down inside the opponents 22.

Half time came with Topsham trailing 0-10 after a fairly innocuous converted Saracens try and a well taken penalty from the boot.

The second half saw Topsham pick up the pace with some good lines hit by both centres and some good breakdown work from the likes of Robbie James and Kevin Ware.

The 25-minute-to-go mark saw Topsham make several substitutions which had an immediate effect when scrum half Rob Busby tapped a quick penalty inside the Saracens 10 metre line, moved the ball quickly through the Topsham three-quarters and allowing Darren Davies to crash over for a score. The conversion was missed.

This proved to be the highlight of the day for Topsham as the only other noteworthy action was Saracens sneaking around the outside for a late try which was converted to give a final score of 5-17.

A disappointing day for Topsham against a side over which they really should have been victorious, with a lack of finishing precision failing to convert the dominance of the Topsham forward pack.

A mention goes to Simon Rushworth, for some, surprisingly, solid defence.
But, yet again, one man stood out for tackling like a train, busting a rib, then tackling some more!! Man of the match is, again, awarded to Chris Jenkins

Topsham RFC

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