Teignmouth held on to top spot in the league thanks to a last gasp bonus point try in a game where they were far from their best, but did enough to keep up their promotion campaign.
Tiverton were relegated last season, and so provided an insight into the sort of challenge which the Teigns could face if this campaign comes to a successful conclusion next spring.
Teignmouth have developed a very useful habit of taking an early lead in recent weeks, and as last week against Withycombe, Chris Tidman made an important interception to run in the first try with only five minutes on the clock.
It might have been expected that, playing uphill and against the wind, Teignmouth would struggle to impose themselves, but the reverse was the case. Skipper Colin Aldworth added his weekly contribution to the scoreboard and last season’s Player of the Year, Pete Parsons, added a third try before the break. With Will Luscombe adding a conversion and a penalty, the visitors turned round with a 20-0 lead.
Strangely, having the slope and the wind in their favour in the second half didn’t do the Teigns any favours. Indeed, Tiverton came back into the game with two Ollie Channin tries, one of which Atkins converted.
But the visitors never looked in danger of losing their lead – the forwards dominated the loose play as they have so often this season. But it was important that Teignmouth scored a fourth try to win the valuable bonus point. This looked unlikely, however, until deep into injury time when an ill-judged clearance kick landed in Jake Bury’s hands, and he ran in unchallenged to sew up the all-important 5th point.
So a tricky looking month ended with just the single defeat against St Ives, and Teignmouth looking well placed to push on to their ambition of promotion. This Saturday sees the club host their first Vice-Presidents’ Lunch prior to the home match against Wessex (kick off 3pm).