Argaum were without influential quartet, Evans, Bennett, Sidebottom and Kenny, but pride themselves on the quality of their squad. In came Ben Glanfield, Dan Smith, Kal Bloomfield and Stuart Quarterman.

Contrary to the forecast, the weather was superb at Bickleigh Down and a large crowd came to support.

It seemed that the Ernesettle side came out of the blocks quicker and two attempted clearances were charged down by a deceivingly quick open side. There was much discussion of offside, but no penalty was given and a try scored in the corner.

The game evened out after 5 minutes or so and a largely forward orientated game developed.

The occasions when Argaum attacked, they looked dangerous and a Dan James break saw him skip four tackles in a 40 yard dash, to offload to Paul Ansell to go over the line.

Five a piece at the turnaround, iy was the Chiefs that took the lead with a well taken Ansell penalty.

Controversy came when at another penalty, the referee overruled both touch judges to disallow the points. Then, after Saracens had scored to edge into the lead, James was shown yellow for a previois tackle, deemed to be high.

Consolidating with fourteen, Argaum continued to push for victory and camped in the Saracen's 22 for the last 10 minutes, the visitors did well to hold on.

A succession of penalties conceded whilst four points up could have been deemed synical and might have produced a card or even penalty try in another game, but try as they might, the Chiefs just couldn't het past that defensive line.

The reaction at the end of the game by a number of visiting supporters was disappointing, but emotions were running high.

The next league outing for Argaum is against a much improved Buckfastleigh in two weeks time, so plenty of time to work on improving.