After the formalities of a team photo, Sidmouth started this game well taking an early lead. Two Brixham indiscretions saw Will Dunford pop over a couple penalties. Brixham responded soon after with a penalty from halfway to halve the deficit.

A period of play where both sides were guilty of speculative long kicks up field eventually led to a Sidmouth try. Wing James Leat ran one of these kicks back at the visitors, linking with Matt Goss who, in turn, fed Will Gater to dive over in the corner for unconverted try.

Brixham were soon back in contention after a terrible error in their half saw Sidmouth gift Brixham a try which went unconverted.

The Quins then scored a splendid team try; clean lineout ball on the halfway line was moved through the backline to wing Mike Kitchen, who made ground before passing back inside to Tristan Beavis who raced in the 35 metres to score with support available to him if needed.

Another try followed soon after when a visitor’s dropped pass was kicked on by Beavis, the ball bounced kindly for wing Leat who gathered the ball up in his arms to score under the posts allowing Dunford to add the extras.

On the stroke of half-time Brixham reduced the arrears with a penalty in front of the posts. The half-time score stood at 23-11 in favour of Sidmouth.

Minutes after the restart, the Quins extended their lead further with a long range Dunford penalty.

It was not long before Sidmouth scored again. Following a decisive break by Beavis the quick recycled ball came back across the field to second row Jack Pyne; who raced away to score an unconverted try.

With 30 minutes to go, Brixham were far from finished. An outstanding cover tackle in the corner from Pyne stopped a certain try. Resolute defence from the forwards, with flanker Stuart Bickerstaff in the thick of it, seemingly to be able to steal the ball at the important moments, kept Brixham at bay.

The pressure did tell however, and the visiting forwards drove over for a converted try. Sidmouth also found themselves down to 14 men with Dan Prettejohn spending 10 minutes off the field. With their tails up, the Fisherman were soon back camped on the Quins’ line and forced over for another unconverted try.

Sidmouth ended the brave Brixham fight back with a final try. Fly-half Matt Goss wove a path through the defence to score under the posts.

The simple conversion was on target.

The referee blew his whistle to signal an end to an exciting and well contested game. Sidmouth, led by prop Luke Knight, should be happy with their performance and will head to Kingsbridge next week full of confidence.