Exmouth 39 - 0 Sidmouth

Exmouth kept their position at the top of the table with this 7 try rout over local rivals Sidmouth.  The young Exmouth side put together some exciting passages of play during this derby match.

The Cockles laid down the gauntlet when in only the 2nd minute, a superb break by Brad Perkins through the centre of the Sidmouth defence, saw Shaun Fayter glide through near the posts for a brilliant try, Fayter adding the extras.  Exmouth sat back after this thinking that the game was going to be easy but Sidmouth had other ideas and prevented any further score until the 25th minute.

There was some good play by the three quarters and after a good break by centre Jordan Kelly, who fed the ball to Lee Loveridge but he was tackled just short of the line and Sidmouth scrambled the ball clear.  The Cockles second try came from a scrum outside the Sidmouth 22 when Sam Bull picked up the ball and made good yardage.  He fed the ball on to Neil Hooper and then on to Terry Mears for him to score wide out, but the difficult conversion failed.

Sidmouth defended their line extremely well during the remaining minutes of the half leaving Exmouth with only a 12 – 0 lead at the interval.

The second half started with the same vigour as the first and Exmouth scored 3 tries in the space of 10 minutes,  one of which was converted by Shaun Fayter.  The first try came following another superb break by Perkins. A quickly recycled ball saw a long cross kick to the touchline where Stu Lowe fielded the ball well to crash over in the corner.  The second came from a turnover by Lowe midfield and quick ball out to Andrewe Powell saw him make 30 metres upfield only to be tackled 10 metres short of the line.  Quick ball was given to Shane Cooper on the drive for him to touchdown under the posts, Fayter converting.  Straight from the kick off, a touchline break by veteren Graham Price up the touchline gave the backs another quick ball.  Shaun Fayter hoisted it upfield and Powell gathered the bounce to evade the Sidmouth defence and score in the corner.

Exmouth continued to attack the Sidmouth line but were often penalised either at the scrum or at the breakdown. 

In the last 10 minutes of the game, Exmouth came back and scored 2 tries by Lowe and Powell.  These came from good three quarter moves involving several players.  Both of these tries were unconverted.

This victory keeps the Cockles title hopes alive and was a good all round team performance which included Colts Andrew Cadywould and James Atkinson.