The travelling support had much to cheer in this corker of a game. Indeed, the small section of Cockles supporters definitely made themselves heard at full time.

In a great contest, Bournemouth Lions had the better of the opening 20 minutes with wave after wave of assault on the Exmouth try line. The Lions did get the first try after four minutes through Ryan Morrell out wide right, missed conversion, 0-5.

For 35 minutes, Exmouth kept looking for a break. Incisive runs from Jake Inglis, Lewis Geran and Matty Ryan were brought down close the Lions whitewash. With half time approaching, it was Dave Bargent who broke off the back of a line-out just inside the Exmouth half and battered his way to cross the try line. George Meadows slotted the conversion, 5-7 to Exmouth.

On 50 minutes, Bournemouth got their break-through, an Ash Taylor try converted by Grant Hancox, 12-7. The game was wide open and it was the away team that struck next. A yellow card for Lions Guildford, gave Exmouth a brief advantage.

A break for the line saw Matty Ryan go over just to the left of the post, converted by Meadows, 12-14. That was good, what happened next was superb. Some lightening reactions from Lewis Geran enabled him to break free from just on the opposition 10 metre line and outstrip the defence, Meadows added the extras 12-21.

Giving away a poor penalty allowed Hancox to close the scores to 15-21. Exmouth did have their chance to close out the game but found themselves defending their line on full time. Eventually Alex Sutherland went over in the corner, 20-21, with the touchline conversion to come. Reliable Hancox missed from the wide angle.

Not just the points scorers, all the Exmouth players deserve a mention for their massive contribution, Oli Cave, Jake Inglis, George Mears, Nick Headley, Rhys Davies-Horne (1st Team debut), James Harris, Connor O’Shaughnessy, Toby Papp, Max Keen, Gareth Walker, Jack Madge, Matt Hicks, Fin Keywood and skipper Jack Fahy certainly deserved the noisy cheers form the away supporters. Also, the gracious congratulations from several Bournemouth supporters too.