With the loss of Teignmouth 1st XV’s Coney Hill game the Seconds were left the responsibility of entertaining a big crowd on a fine day for rugby.

The fixture was always going to be tough and physical – Teignmouth had turned Exmouth 3rd XV over by a point at their patch and a powerful looking squad showed the visitors were looking for payback.

A fierce start by the visitors led to a break from halfway which looked a certain score until winger Ben Apps pulled off a tap tackle close to the try line.

This was built on by the forwards who got back in numbers and turned Exmouth over.

The game swung from end-to-end until a catch-and-drive from Teignmouth and finished by Andy Webber saw them ahead.

The hosts then took their foot off the gas and Exmouth had their best spell of the game, attacking hard for 15 minutes and going 10-5 ahead with two unconverted tries.

Teignmouth’s forwards linked well to mount pressure, with Twine and Wilkins running the ball back well.

However, on the stroke of half-time, Exmouth got into the Teignmouth 22 and scored a converted try to leave the interval score 5-17.

The home side fired out of the blocks at the start of the second half and piled pressure on the Exmouth line.

The forwards pounded away until Arron Kelly crashed over. The missed conversion from close in looked as if it could be costly and even more so when, after moving the ball across the pitch one way, then the other, replacement full-back Danny McKenna out-paced the defence and scored wide out.

This left Teignmouth 17-15 down.

They came again, driving Exmouth back with focused attacks. Lineout drives and good ball retention resulted in numerous penalties and, eventually one in front of the posts was kicked by Stefan Walker to put Teignmouth 18-17 ahead.

Exmouth returned to the attack but the Teignmouth defence kept them out for the remainder of the game.