Exmouth Nomads secured a third place finish in their Merit Table after their 48-10 win over Crediton III, writes Rich Haynes.

The Nomads squad was pushed to its limits for their final league game of the campaign and travelled to Mid Devon with 16 players, a number swiftly reduced to 15 after JJ Burden felt the reoccurrence of a previous injury during the warm-up, forcing a further reshuffle of the team before kick-off.

The reshuffle saw Sam Warren move from the wing into the back row, which allowed a returning Connor MacDonald to switch back to his more familiar position of inside centre.

In terms of the Nomads’ points scoring, both centres, Chris Wright-Junior and Connor MacDonald, helped themselves to a brace of tries, but that feat was surpassed by full-back Bobak Skelly, who crossed the whitewash three times. Nick Eveleigh, playing only his second game of senior rugby, kicked four of seven conversions. The only black mark for the day saw habitual offender Charlie ‘Grimace’ Garratt see yellow again for a high tackle.

A third place finish for the season is a more than respectable position to end the term for the Nomads.

Hats off to Sidmouth and Ilfracombe, who both finished above Exmouth this season. Both have been far too good to handle with the hours both sides have put in on the training paddock shining through when we played them.

The Mighty Nomads will regroup over the off-season and the target for next year will be to resecure the league title when the new campaign gets under way in September.