Argaum, again unable to play many of their potential first choice players started slowly. The large Dartmouth pack seemed fired up and perhaps took the Chiefs by surprise.

Tom Cole made his first start for the Chiefs at scrum half and Tom Richards was named as captain.

Dartmouth converted a penalty at the stroke of half time to go in level, after Paul Ansell had slotted earlier in the half in what was a drab and disjointed first 40 minutes.

The humidity up on the hill in the South Hams town might have contributed to the lack of clinical execution. Coach Sansom rang the changes at the turnaround and pulled Richards into 9, with Daniel James coming off the bench.

Ball started to come a bit to the backs and a good break from Marshall started to open the game up a bit. Despite this, Dartmouth went in front with a try tight to the scrum. They added a penalty.

Due to strong tackle breaking running from Dan Smith, the Chiefs won their own penalty, which Ansell duely converted.

Halfway through the second period, number 8, Mason Edwards, broke blind and touched down in the corner. Ansell potted a great conversion.

Slack tackling saw the visitors concede another soft try and with time running out had to go up the gears. Smith grabbed the bull by the horns and rammed his way through four tackles to put Argaum back in front. A try that sealed his man of the match display.

The win wasn't to come in the end after another try in the last few minutes saw Dartmouth take the game. The final whistle came and the home players celebrated like they had won the cup. Perhaps a testament to how much they wanted the game.

As with all pre-season games, the result was less important than what we can learn from the game. This match identified a few areas that needed working on, which will be addressed at training over the next few weeks.

Next Saturday sees the Chiefs at home to Saltash2 and the Wanderers also at home to Plym Vic.