OPMs won a vital match in hand to keep them in touch with leaders, Wessex, at Elburton.

Both sides, depending on whether they were facing a very strong wind or not, found it difficult to get out of their halves.

But the Old Boys edged the match in the second half when Jake Luffman went over for the game's only try. Justin Morton defied the wind and algebra when he managed to bisect South Molton's posts for the conversion from the touchline.

OPMs had been beaten by Wessex the previous week, the Exeter side starving the city side of the ball and assistant head coach Steve Luffman said: "South Molton were a kind of Wessex-Lites although they didn't do it so well.

"The way they played was fair enough – they kept the ball among their forwards. Their fly-half was bigger than any of our props and really their game plan was to keep the ball away from us.

"We played against the wind in the first half and we were pleased when we were only 3-0 down at half-time, because we had thought that was a 10-12 point wind if you had it in your favour.

"It was a very dour struggle – we were trying to use some width, but although we dominated territory, we didn't dominate possession."