It seems strange that, at the end of a match between third and fourth placed teams,

But Simon Morrell and Colin Aldworth were merely reflecting the attitude of the rest of their team after a less-than-convincing victory over Truro.

Teignmouth haven’t progressed from Devon 1 to the verge of South West 1 over the past 5 years without a determination to improve, even when winning.

It would have been easy to blame the conditions, and the fact that both sides had been pretty inactive since the New Year, but Morrell and Aldworth realise that excuses won’t earn a second promotion in as many years.

The home side seemed to have the game won by half time, as Pete Parsons, Aldworth and top-scorer Will Sowden scored tries and Dan Force added a conversion. Aldworth’s was the pick of the crop, and the crowd were delighted to see the second row throw a dummy worthy of any centre before storming over the line.

However, Truro are worthy of their place in the hunt for a play-off position, and came back fighting in the second half, and with over 20 minutes left had reduced the arrears to one point through tries from Rikki Brandon, Karl Ranscombe and Theo Gaydon and two Jake Champion conversions.

Fortunately, in Sowden the Teigns have a poacher par excellence, and within a minute of Gaydon’s try he intercepted a pass in the visitors’ 22 and touched down under the post, allowing Force an easy conversion.

That relieved the pressure on the home side, and five minutes later youngster Henry Raby, making a welcome return from injury, tied up the victory with the fifth try, which Force again converted.

There was still enough time for Truro to earn a consolation bonus point with a fourth try from Ranscombe, but apart from that short period at the start of the second half, there really only looked like being one winner, and the five points accrued, as well as Burnham’s defeat at Torquay, put Teignmouth in a strong position to claim second spot and a play-off against the runners-up in the Western Counties North division.

Coach and skipper know, however, that the errors which punctuated this match will need to be eradicated in future weeks if this dream is to be achieved. This week’s home match against Tavistock would be a good place to start. Kick-off is at 2pm.

Photo Lorna Gray