Bridgwater deserved to inflict this third consecutive defeat on a Sidmouth team which bears little resemblance to the one which sat in second place only a few weeks ago.

The Chiefs were out-scrummaged and out-mauled. Constantly on the backfoot, they were unable construct much in the way attacking rugby and rarely threatened the home try line.

Both sides had players yellow carded in a lacklustre first quarter. Bridgwater eventually took the lead with a penalty kicked by the fly half. A try followed three minutes later when a diagonal kick bounced kindly for the right winger to sprint over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Two well-struck penalties by Dan Retter reduced the arrears to two points at half time.

Three minutes into the second half, Retter put his side in front with a third successful place kick.

Bridgwater regained the lead when their left winger dived over in the corner after a long period of pressure on the Sidmouth line.

Two more Dan Retter penalties put his side in front with 15 minutes to play, but, with five minutes to go, the home fly half kicked the winning points in a game with few highlights.