Barnstaple Chiefs roar to Devon derby success

Barnstaple Chiefs moved up to fourth in the Regional Tribute SW division with a dominant 80-15 victory over Ivybridge, Alex Penny delivering a man of the match display in a brutal Barum performance. Barnstaple travel to Marlborough this weekend.

Barnstaple Athletic fought back to earn a losing bonus point in a 26-19 defeat at Kingsbridge, while the Colts won 45-29 at Exeter Saracens.

The difficult start continued for Bideford, who remain without a victory after going down to a 5-31 against a visiting Bude side. Bideford will now be targeting this weekend’s trip to Penryn, who are also in the bottom three.

Bideford Quins are third in the Devon Merit Table NE but lost some ground on leaders Ilfracombe following a 17-25 loss at Exeter Engineers 2nds. Ilfracombe had no game on Saturday due to Exmouth 3rds being unable to raise a team.

There is a big North Devon derby in this division on Saturday, when the Combe travel to Barnstaple Buccaneers. Torrington, meanwhile, secured their first win of the campaign with an entertaining 47-24 triumph over Tiverton Athletic.

South Molton suffered a blank weekend at home to OPM from Plymouth, going down to a 0-17 loss to remain third from bottom in the Counties 2 Tribute Devon division. There was better news for South Molton Colts, who performed superbly to beat Cullompton 25-5.

Exeter Chiefs remain second from bottom in the Gallagher Premiership and seeking their first league victory after suffering late heartbreak in a fabulous Westcountry derby with Bristol Bears.

A sensational hat-trick from Bristol’s Gabriel Ibitoye was enough to earn the visitors a 40-35 victory at Sandy Park after the Chiefs had led 15-12 at half-time, Paul Brown-Bampoe and the impressive Immanuel Feyi-Waboso dotting down for Exeter.

The Chiefs extended their lead to 32-12, with Brown-Bampoe and Feyi-Waboso both scoring again, but everything changed when Dan Frost was sin-binned with 15 minutes left on the clock.

Incredibly, Bristol sored three tries in the space of four chaotic minutes. A penalty from Josh Hodge restored the Exeter lead but Ibitoye had the final word, surging through a beleaguered Chiefs’ defence to win the match for the Bears.

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon: "We're close to being a very good team, but the bit that we've got to get right is probably the hardest bit in professional sport, which is holding your composure together under pressure and not multiplying issues.

"We had a lot of players multiplying issues today. It's not because they don't want to win, it's not because they don't care, I know that, but they've got to be able to just clear their heads sometimes and just do the right things.

"It was a little bit scary watching us after that yellow card. Some of the lads will look at me, and I swear they will be saying 'I don’t know what I did'.

"Some of it was a little bit silly, almost, but we're not going to move on until we take responsibility."