Sidmouth were beaten 30-10 in their pre-season meeting with Topsham, writes Terry O’Brien.

With 43 players to fit into four 20 minutes sessions, Sidmouth struggled for cohesion with the constant changes in personnel required to give everyone sufficient game time.

Sidmouth made sparkling start, with two well-worked tries in the opening quarter to open up a ten point lead. Harry Chesterton exploited a gap in the defence to sprint in from 30 metres out to open the scoring and then executed a pinpoint grubber kick for Rory O’Brien to follow up and score try number two.

Despite exerting considerable pressure in the second quarter, Sidmouth were unable to add to their score before a Topsham forward crashed over from a ruck near the line to reduce the lead.

The third quarter was evenly contested, but Topsham’s better finishing saw them take the lead with two more tries. The visitors then took complete control of the final session, crossing the line three more times for a comfortable victory.