The rainy weather couldn’t dampen the spirits of the Withy men this weekend as they finished off their season with a statement win against one of their closest rivals.

Games against Exeter Saracens have typically been a closely fought encounter but recently have also been one of those ‘bogey’ games with the Sarries taking the spoils on the last five meetings, most recently with a particularly painful 71-0 defeat at Exhibition Fields earlier in the season.

However, with some momentum behind the boys during the closing stages of this year’s campaign, there was belief that this could be a different story.

This belief was only strengthened with another lightning start for Withy as Joel Ranft completed an early Liam Daniels break to open the scoring inside two minutes.

Early pressure continued as they made the most of the slope to keep their opponents inside their own half for much of the first ten.

The worsening conditions were troubling withy however, as they started to relinquish possession through dropped balls and loose set play, handing Sarries a way back into the game.

The increase in possession fired up Sarries as they gained in confidence. After a considerable defensive shift inside their own 22, the Withycombe wall was finally breached half an hour into the game to level the scores at 7-7.

The territorial battle continued to swing in favour of the visitors as they resumed their attack on the Withy line. This time though, there was to be no way through and with a decisive turnover at the perfect time, Withy made their way back downfield.

The initial phase of attack at Brook End looked to have been lost as the Sarries turned over again, but with the clearing kick being charged down by the ever-present Liam Daniels, there was another chance with the ball sitting unoccupied in the red zone. Tom Parker launched on the ball and the try was scored on the stroke of half time, giving Withy a 14-7 lead at the break.

The opening exchanges of the second half belonged near solely to Sarries again as their 42nd minute penalty and a second try of their game two minutes later saw them take the lead.

This lead wasn’t to last long as Withycombe responded well to set up a strong string of attack inside Sarries’ 5m channel. After several phases, including one which saw the ball cross the line, the try was finally registered, with Billy Sharland nudging Withy back into the lead at 19-17.

The second half was becoming a real end-to-end encounter with both teams playing some strong rugby. Another Sarries try saw them back in command, albeit for just a couple of minutes before Joel Ranft levelled the scores with a nice run down the left side of the pitch. Parker’s touchliine conversion added the two points needed to lead once again.

From there, Withy never looked back. Matt Edworthy extended the lead as he emerged from a melee of bodies in another decent piece of pick-and-go rugby.

A defensive howler from the Saracens lead to Withy’s sixth score as a grubber kick into space wasn’t securely gathered, allowing for Dan May to pick up and hand back inside to Archie Symons who crossed the line to add an air of safety to the game.

Sarries, keen to make amends for the error, sent the game back into Withycombe territory, testing the boys’ fitness late into the game.

Withies passed the test with flying colours, turning the tables completely, adding one final score of their own. Another loose ball was collected inside Sarries’ 22’ and was shipped wide to Jayden Gore who closed out the game and the season with the final score at 43-24.