Baptism of fire

Starting the new season away from home against an always well organised Sidmouth was always going to be an uphill challenge. With several players trying new positions and everybody playing their first ever 15 aside full pitch match, it seemed that the occasion almost overawed the Exmouth squad.
From the kick off, Exmouth were on the back foot with Sidmouth passing well and reacting first to every situation. The first half ended with the cockles 17-0 down.
Sidmouth started the second half in the same gear, and scored again inside five minutes. This seemed to wake up the Exmouth boys and allowed them to play some of the rugby they are capable of, which resulted in the ever growing Andrew Wheeler driving through for two tries.
The joy was short lived though and Sidmouth reacted strongly with three more tries of their own before the final whistle, leaving the result 41 – 12 to the hosts.
There were though many positives to the game and a few of the positional questions have started to be answered. Not also forgetting that there were three debutants taking to the rugby field for the very first time, and Callum Cox, Nathanael Aasma and Jordan Mitchell should be extremely proud of their contributions on a very tough opening day of the season.