THIS was a much better performance by Salcombe, building considerably on the improvement they showed last week.

Playing away against genuine promotion contenders was always going to be a tough call and, despite an early setback, Salcombe showed true character to gain the maximum five points.

The home side took the lead after shoving the Salcombe set scrum back 10 yards.

They whipped the ball out to their right wing, who cantered over wide out. Although the kick failed, it looked as if it might be a long afternoon for Salcombe.

However, the Crabs had other ideas and took firm control of the match and were unlucky when a couple of difficult penalty kicks were missed.

A promising move in the backs was just squeezed out into touch and the ever-present Ian Smerdon charged down a Topsham clearance. He then gathered the ball but, with 40 yards to go and no support, he was pulled down just short of the line. All this hard work was then wasted when a poor kick out of defence by Salcombe went straight to the home side's backs, who moved the ball quickly to score a converted try bringing the score to 12-0 to Topsham.

But Salcombe made amends when Sean Baker won a Topsham throw-in and Chris Drew put in a great diagonal kick.

Darren Hopkins, chasing the ball, prevented the Topsham winger from offloading and Lewis Winzer was on hand to rip the ball out and go over for a try, which Scott Lowry then converted.

Right on the dot of half-time Topsham got a penalty to bring the score to 15-7 to the home side. At the break it was obvious that Topsham were suffering from the Crabs' very physical defence. They had used all three substitutes by half-time and resumed the second half with several walking wounded.

The second half started with Salcombe pressing hard and being held up across the line.

In a change of tactics, the forwards secured a loose ball and, instead of battering away themselves, they gave the backs the ball, who functioned smoothly to allow Darren Hopkins to score wide out. Lowry's difficult conversion failed.

Now at 15-12 down, Salcombe sensed that the match could be theirs and, following a line-out, from a penalty Simon Keen kicked deep into home territory.

With Bevan looming menacingly, their backs then fumbled the ball, allowing the winger to gratefully scoop up the ball for the try, which Drew converted.

This put Salcombe 19-15 ahead and there soon followed the best move of the game which allowed Stuart Winzer to go over for a try, which was unconverted.

The forwards had put together a number of phases before releasing the ball to the backs, who then got close to the try line. With the ball coming back to the forwards, there was some very smart interpassing which ripped the Topsham defence apart and allowed Winzer to go over, thus rewarding a great performance by him throughout the match.

Very late in the game some sloppy Salcombe defence gave Topsham a soft try under the posts to bring up the final score and give Salcombe their first four-try bonus point of the season.

Tomorrow the 1sts and 2nds both entertain Wessex at home, with the 1sts kicking off at 2.30pm and the 2nds at 4.15.

Wessex are runaway league leaders but, with Salcombe playing much better, there could be an upset.