IT WAS always going to be a hard day at the office for Teignmouth RFC, plagued as they were by injury and unavailability for the second week in a row, writes Chris Gray.

A minute’s silence was held before the game and the club flags were at half-mast following the tragic passing of Angus Rackham.

Tiverton opened the scoring with a penalty but Teignmouth came firing back and skipper Cameron Johns was driven over the line to make it 3-5.

The home side remained undeterred though and racked up four quick tries, all converted, taking the score to 31-5 after just 22 minutes.

Some dogged defence and hard running in attack slowed the scoring rate for a while but Tivvy struck next.

Their ill-discipline led to a yellow and Teignmouth used this to their advantage, Jamie Collins scoring the final points of the first half.

In less than three minutes after the break, Tiverton were back in the points with another converted try taking the tally to 45-10.

Teignmouth continued to battle, stemming the flow of points with some open attack and stoic defence. A chip kick into the Tiverton corner nearly put winger Andy Webber in for a try but Tiverton got there first.

Further damage took the home side to their final total of 64 points but the beleaguered Teigns were not finished yet, a technical error at a defensive lineout by Tiverton gave the visitors a free kick, the tap-and-go putting Matt Dowrick into the corner for a consolation score.

Captain Cam Johns was the Teignmouth man of the match- they sit 10th in the league whilst Tiverton are up in third.

Teignmouth are due to host Newton Abbot this Saturday in the last four of the Devon Intermediate Plate. The other semi-final is between Kingsbridge and Cullompton.