Despite drawing alongside leaders Burnham at the top of the table,

several times.

Their dissatisfaction is easy to understand, given that they out-scored their hosts by five tries to three, but it should be remembered that the last time these clubs clashed, Tavvy ran out very easy winners – the Teigns have toughened up in the intervening 18 months, and are going to be nobody’s pushovers this year.

It was strange, given Teignmouth’s style of play in the last year or so, that the visitors were so slow out of the blocks in the first 20 minutes. Normally they put pressure on their opponents from the first whistle, but last week they seemed quite subdued, and their only points in that period came from a Dan Force penalty.

However Lewis Edwards soon gave the home side the lead with the first of two tries, as Tavistock took advantage of some uncharacteristic sloppiness in Teignmouth’s defence.

From then points were exchanged on a regular basis, with Teignmouth managing to turn a huge amount of possession into points through tries from hooker Pete Parsons and wingers Jake Bury and Henry Raby. Young Raby’s performance was especially impressive; not only did he score his first try in Teignmouth colours, but he went on to complete a hat-trick in the dying minutes to draw the scores level.

Unfortunately, Force was unable to reproduce his superb kicking performance of the previous week, mainly because all five of the Teigns’ tries were scored in the corner. Tavvy, meanwhile, scored two more tries through Edwards and Danny Luffman, and Richard West landed two conversions and four penalties.

The ugly side of rugby was apparent in the second half when the home side’s Adie Baker was sent off for gouging Arron Kelly’s eye, but the visitors were unable to take full advantage of their numerical supremacy.

After the game, skipper Colin Aldworth was keen to draw the positives from his team’s performance. “The forwards played as well as they've played in the last 2 years, and our scrummage was immense. Added to that, Tavvys scramble defence was really impressive, and they had a better kicking game than us in the loose.”

Those forwards will need to be on top form again this week as Teignmouth travel to Burnham for a top-of-the-table clash that will give some idea of whether they are likely to find themselves involved in a promotion campaign for the second season running.

Report By: Paul Williams