After a couple of weeks without a full fixture, Topsham 2nd XV made the short trip down the coast to high flying Withycombe.

With a bare 15 man squad and a pitch to play on that was wide enough to dock aircraft carriers, Topsham could have been forgiven foe feeling somewhat under-confident about their final game of 2013.

From the kick off, however, this proved to be far from the case as they dominated both territory and possession with returning student Rory Austburger hacking threw and grounding the ball to open the scoring on approximately the 20 minute mark. Tim Taylor was unlucky to hit the far upright with his conversion attempt.

Withycombe soon hit back however, proving their strike potential to score with their first move inside the Topsham half.

Later on, after some more dominant forward play from Topsham, Taylor knocked over a penalty to give them a slim 8-7 lead at half time.

The second half continued in much the same vein, with Topsham in control yet Withycombe showing their class with the little ball they had.

Topsham struck first again with Kevin Ware burrowing over after a number of good phases of play involving both backs and forwards. Taylor converted for Tops to lead 15-7.

Topsham then switched off a little, not helped by the Withycombe necessity to go to uncontested scrummaging, and a couple of poorly missed tackles allowed Withycombe to score another converted try.

With the game now on a one point knife-edge, Topsham showed great resolve in defence and fantastic guile in game management to initially defend their slender lead and force a penalty which allowed Taylor to open up a four point, which turned out to be the final score, a 18-14 victory for Topsham.

A superb result from a bare Topsham 2nd XV against the team sat previously unbeaten at second in the merit table, which throws Topsham right back into the title mix.

Special mentions to Tony Davies for some inventive attacking play and Chris Jenkins, making his returned from pregnant-wife-enforced-hiatus, in an unfamiliar position.
Man of the match however, is awarded to Rob James for a tireless openside performance.

Topsham RFC

Table 3 NE Fixtures

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