Exeter College and Truro College have a lot in common in their rugby programmes and this season has produced three exciting and close fixtures with very little to choose between the teams on all occasions. Trace back in history and you will see that Exeter and Truro are the only two Further Education Colleges to have been crowned Champions of England with victories in the Daily Mail Cup final at Twickenham in recent times. This is something that both colleges are very proud of and has certainly been a catalyst to their current successes on a national scale.

This season has seen very tight fixtures go down to the wire in the AASE League and British Colleges League and honours have been shared with one victory each and a draw (3-3!). On Wednesday it was Exeter College who earned a hard fought 21-11 victory in a British Colleges game at Cullompton Rugby Club which was a great response to last weeks 19-8 loss at the hands of Truro in the AASE League.

Exeter started this weeks game brightly with accurate tactical kicking from the astute George Meadows at fly half, in response to some outstanding recycling of possession by Truro. It was Truro who took the lead with an early penalty given for offside on the 22 metre line. The Exeter forwards became prominent after 15 minutes and made their dominance pay when they produced some excellent platforms for centre Jack Talbot to make good inroads into the heart of the Truro defence. From this attack, Exeter recycled possession and fly half Meadows delivered a 20m pass over the heads of the Truro defence to send in winger Justin Southam to score the first try of the game. Talbot's fellow centre Linford Brock made a number of breaks throughout the game, picking excellent lines and showing great strength in the tackle. It was from two of these such breaks, two penalties were awarded which Meadows duly converted to take the score to 11-3.

Truro responded with some solid attacking rugby with a backline that included Launceston's Sam Chapman and Aaron Struminski, and this led to another penalty which was successful to reduce the arrears to 11-6. This was to be the last score of the half after Truro successfully defended a barrage of close quarter attacks from the strong Exeter forwards including a driving maul which was held up over the line, and an error from Exeter forward Dean Folland who grounded the ball on the 5 metre line thinking it was the try line!

In another bizarre twist, Folland was to make the same mistake again five minutes into the second half when after a 15 metre driving maul, he grounded the ball short once again! This error looked like it could be costly as Truro began to use the wind to play some sensible territorial rugby and pin back the Exeter Defence. Excellent defence from both sides saw no further score until 15 minutes from time when Exeter's pack drove over the try line for Folland to make amends for his earlier errors (16-6). Meadows missed a difficult conversion into a strong wind. Truro came back strong and scored a driving maul try of their own after Exeter had conceeded a number of penalties (16-11). It was Exeter who then controlled the game with winger Lewis Edwards, back rowers Will Hodgetts and Captain Ben King carrying well to gain good territory for scrum half James Bath to scamper over from 5 metres following a ruck to put the result beyond doubt (21-11).

The future looks bright for both colleges with both teams blooding a number of first year students in their squads this season. In fact, all three of Exeter's tries on this occasion came from first years. This weeks AASE fixtures see Exeter take on Henley College (Wasps Apprentices) at Cullompton RFC (2.15pm Kick off), and Truro take on St Paul's (London Irish Apprentices) at home in a double header.