A strong showing from Honiton was enough to bag a 39-22 home victory over Plymouth Argaum, writes Justin Nuttall.

Playing up the slope the home team didn’t have the greatest of starts, conceding the first try of the game. Honiton gave away a penalty on their five metre line and from a tap penalty, the resulting maul went over the line, try converted, 0-7.

Honiton moved the ball up field and James Goodman scored a try shortly afterwards, conversion missed. Using their heavier pack, Plymouth scored their second try of the game in the same bottom left corner, conversion missed, 5-12.

In what was becoming a see-saw first half, captain Jonny House dummied his way through the line and had the pace and power to beat the full-back. Try converted and scores level, 12-12.

From the kick off, the Ton moved up field and were using their clear pace advantage and Josh Rice barged over, conversion missed, 17-12 with the Ton taking the lead for the first time.

With the home side out-pacing the away side, they used this advantage by moving the ball wide in both directions, resulting in a try for Ben Phillips , again not converted but a bonus point secured, 22-12.

Try number five came just before half-time when James Goodman was on the end of a James Coutts Tucker pass to score wide right, the conversion was missed, 27-12.

Argaum didn’t give up and kept the second half interesting with an unconverted try before the half-time break, 27-17.

Honiton were dominating both territory and possession but couldn’t advance the scoreboard.

The deadlock was broken when Dom Bernhardt forced his way over from short range, conversion missed, 32-17.

Argaum had some sustained possession near the Ton try line, a succession of penalties saw veteran Nick Guilbert see yellow for infringement at the breakdown. The pressure finally turned into points for Argaum with a deserved unconverted try, 32-22.

Honiton answered back a couple of minutes later with youngster Jake Johnson wide left after some good pressure by the forwards. Converted by Ben Phillips, 39-22

Alfie Lang was the next Honiton player to see yellow when he was penalised for a high tackle, but the 14 men held on for the remaining two minutes. A pleasing home bonus point win for the fair-sized crowd to savour.