Honiton 2nd XV went down 57-14 when they travelled to face a young, fit, and pacey Exeter Engineers University XV.

Despite facing such slick opposition, Honiton played well in the first 20 minutes with their bigger pack dominating.

It was, however, a contrast in style as you’d expect from young fit students who, every time they got the ball, broke well and scored several times and went in at the break some 33 points up.

The second half saw more hard work from the Lacemen forwards and their efforts were duly rewarded when Louie Lane crossed for the first Honiton try of the contest. Sam Olive sent over the conversion.

However, the problems of the first half persisted and Honiton just couldn’t contain the Engineers, who scored several more points.

Honiton battled on and it was no more than Sam Olive deserved for his efforts throughout when he crossed for the second Honiton try of the game, one he duly converted himself.

In the last quarter of the game the Lacemen hung on well to deny the students further scores, but were well beaten by the time the match official blew for full-time.

Special mention should be made of the contributions of Louie Lane and Dan Olive for working hard and making several good tackles and others most worthy of special praise are the number of the club colts who, having put a good shift in for the club in the morning, turned out for the 2nd XV in the afternoon and all played their part well. The Honiton Man of the Match award went to Sam Olive.

One thing worth pointing out is that had the team played throughout as they did in both the first and the last periods of 20 minutes, then the final score would surely have been very different!