"Without being disrespectful to Newton, I honestly thought that we were awful today and the margin of victory is somewhat flattering to us. Newton were also off their usual form against us, and wasted a number of chances that they created. As far as a Devon Derby goes, it did not live up to the hype, and the usual tense and confrontational affair that has typified such games in the past.

"In the first half, whilst starting brightly, we kicked poorly and tackled badly and were lucky to go in at half time ahead. In the Browne's (winger and number 8), Newton had dangerous players who made yards against us, and Matt Newman pulled the strings well.

"Richard Cadywould came on at ten at half time and for me, changed the complexion of the game with a masterful tactical kicking game which gave us momentum. His goal kicking was also accurate, and for the second game running, he proved to be the match winner for us. Nigel Berry at tight head caused all sorts of problems at scrum time and is certainly maturing into a very good prop. Matt Ryan, who was given the nod at nine in front of Garry Hooper, was also excellent and was able to effectively raise the pace of the game.

"Tactically, in the weeks training we had worked hard on exploiting Newton's blind side defence, where they leave their front row, and I felt that we made some reasonable gains there. However, we did not show much respect to the ball and often gifted Newton possession through a very high error count. Newton will be disappointed that they did not finish off a couple of line breaks that they created, mainly through the dangerous Browne's and we will celebrate the victory knowing full well that we did not play well today. We will certainly need to improve our performance level in the coming weeks with six massive games ahead."

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