Second placed Exmouth underlined their promotion credentials with a powerful display that delivered ten tries. The home side fought valiantly for much of the game and made the Cockles work hard for their scores, but this is game the Saints will quickly need to put down to experience and move on.

The Saints’ cause was not helped when flanker Rory Jago was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle after just three minutes. It felt a hash decision at the time but having set such a low threshold for a yellow card, there was much frustration as the benchmark was never applied again with all manner of high hits, croc-rolls and obstructions going unpunished throughout the following 77 minutes. Exmouth ruthlessly exploited the extra space to score three excellent converted tries and with the momentum now very much in their favour added a fourth to make is 0-28 after just 21 minutes. To their credit, the Saints rallied and started to build the phases to maintain possession and launch some positive attacking play of their own. Eagle-eyed scrum half Dan Tyrrell spotted a gap and shot through it to get behind the Cockles defence. A perfectly timed off-load found his half-back partner Archie Bees in support who finished in style under the posts (7-28). The home side dominated the last 10 minutes of the half with young winger Arthur Fletcher coming the closest to score, but the final pass just failed to go to hand. The Saints pounded away in the 5m zone but found Exmouth as solid in defence as they had been fluid in attack. Despite multiple infringements from the visitors, the yellow card remained in the pocket and the first period ended with a foot in touch.

The opening exchanges of the second half were evenly balanced with play moving from end to end. The first roar from the crowd was triggered by a jinking run from centre Ben Plummer who took the ball out from the shadows of his own posts to deep into the Exmouth half. The Saints set-piece had held up well against a bigger pack, but two scrum penalties in quick succession provided the impetus for Exmouth’s fifth try of the afternoon (7-35). This was quickly followed by a swift counter attack from Exmouth after a home reply had looked on the cards (7-42). The Saints finally got their reward after applying some sustained pressure in the Exmouth half. Dan Tyrrell reacted quickest to a penalty for a high tackle to tap and shoot over for a try. Archie Bees added the extras, but to the frustration of the home support the expected yellow for the high hit was not shown (14-42). The next score probably summed up the day of the Saints, the home pack pushed the Exmouth scrum backwards on the 40m line. A knock-on by the scrum-half was missed and a spiralling box kick bounced in a way that only a rugby ball can falling straight into the hands of the chaser who gleefully scored unopposed under the posts (14-49). A demoralising moment that caused a few heads to drop and a rampant Exmouth added three further tries to put some extra gloss on the scoreline (14-68).

Congratulations to Exmouth, the best side the Saints have played this season and if they continue in this form they will be challenging for top spot come the end of the season. A heavy defeat is always hard to take, but with St Ives pulling out of the County Cup next Saturday there is now time for recovery and hopefully the return of some of the injured players. Next up is a long trip to Wiltshire and a first ever visit to Royal Wootton Bassett RFC (Saturday 09/11/2024).