Dartmouth will head in to their fixture against high-flying New Cross, full of confidence after pulling off one of the great upsets last weekend against an Exter University team who had thumped them 80-5 in the return fixture.

They will need to keep their standards up, and attack as they did against Exeter, if they want to make it through to the final of the Junior Cup.

The Kingsteignton team currently sit in second place in Tribute Devon 1 after nilling Salcombe in an impressive performance at the weekend.

Jeff Hunt, of Dartmouth RFC, said: 'Confidence is sky high at the moment, but we know it will be a tough game at the weekend.'

'The big game for us coming up', says Jeff, 'is away at Ilfracombe on March 3. We are fairly sure we can beat them, we won comfortably when we played them at home and we beat them away last season.'

If Dartmouth win that one, which is their game in hand over Exeter Uni, they will go top of the table.

The club is thinking of getting a coach for any supporters who would like to see Dartmouth beat Ilfracombe, anyone interested should contact Jeff Hunt on 07816661901.

If the club can't fill the coach, the Riversiders have the Dartmouth Academy's minibus anyway, courtesy of Nick Hindmarsh, the principle of Dartmouth Academy. The club extends its thanks for this.

Describing the triumph over Exeter, Jeff said: 'We thought, to be honest, that this match would be damage limitation, given what they did to us up at their place (80-5 to Exeter). We knew the only way we were going to win was just to go for it from the start, and thankfully it paid off.'

Anyone lucky enough to have access behind the scenes of Dartmouth Rugby Football Club would tell you, with a smile on their face, that there is an air of confidence in the Riversiders camp.

Not an arrogant confidence, a confidence you only get with playing together week in, week out, training together and socialising together season after season.

The bond with each player is unbreakable. That is why the Riversiders have gone seven league games unbeaten.

Of course, there are people out there who will be saying that 'It's only Tribute Devon Two' and to be fair, they are to a certain degree right. However, the Riversiders have taken on South Molton, in a league above them, and comfortably beaten them at their place.

They have also had close games away against Salcombe and at home to New Cross, and  praise has to go to coach Steve Atkins and assistant Nick Shillabeer, who have made the Riversiders  a team that make the game of rugby such a joy to watch.

Steve's tactics were spot on on Saturday and the lads gave him a special 50th birthday present, something that money can't buy. A big win.

The Riversiders took on the University of Exeter and, as reported in last week's Chronicle, Dartmouth will not play a defending game; all they do is attack and attack and attack until they score, and once they've scored they're going to score again. That's exactly what they did.  

All management would like to thank everyone who turned up on a very windy, rainy, Saturday afternoon. The club wish to thank the crowd for making Dartmouth have the extra man and making it a very memorable game. 

Exeter turned up late, and without any backroom staff or even a coach, and paid dearly for that. Fly-half Richard Lobb, once again showing his pure powerful brilliance, got his first of the day with just 12 minutes gone, and it was a good one.

Martin Sharam got quick ball out to Lobb, who dummied a pass to Bono then powered his way over to the far left-hand side.

With a swirling wind, Luke Bonstow had to hold the ball for Dartmouth's full back Aaron Hunt because the ball wouldn't stay on the tee. Hunt gave it all he had but the ball unluckily hit the wrong side of the posts.

Miguel Tenreiro also gave everything he had, counter-rucking every ball and making some bone-crunching tackles. Nick Shillabeer was loving every scrum, maul, ruck and lineout. Reg Varney took his revenge on his opposite number and most of the other Exeter pack.

The next move came from a line-out, with Iain Watton, having the game of his life, not missing a catch in the line-outs, and nicking most of Exeter's line-out ball as well.

Lobb went over for his second of the day after Watton tapped the ball down to Sharam. The scrum-half passed to Lobb, who moved the ball on to Tom Jones before regaining possession on the blind side to score.

Aaron Hunt, even more determined to slot this one over, gave it one almighty boot and in went the conversion.

Tom Jones took a knock on the rib cage soon after and had to be hauled off, to be replaced by Karl Caunter going in at seven.

Will Lockerbie thus moved from seven to outside center. Exeter restarted the game and Dartmouth, with the changes being made, panicked a bit, Exeter's centre pouncing on a charge down to score a converted try, bringing the score to 12-7. Four minutes later Aaron Hunt kicked a penalty to put the boot in again.

Dartmouth put the game plan into action at the start of the second half and started mauling ferociously.

Time after time they pushed the Exeter defence back, and this time Reg Varney, at the side of the maul, took the ball on and went in for try number three for the Riversiders.

Once again the boot of Hunt made sure the Riversiders went in at half time a comfortable 15 points ahead. The team talk from skipper Will Lockerbie was to keep the ball, not panic and just enjoy the game.

They were dominant for the first 40 minutes and there's no reason why they can't be dominant the next 40.

He wasn't wrong. Dartmouth came out, rucking every ball, mauling, pushing Exeter back, Exeter had no answer for this tsunami of attacks.

The forwards were so dominant that the Dartmouth backs didn't get a touch of the ball for at least the first 15 minutes, but when they did they ran the lines that they have been doing at training.

If Dartmouth were playing a lesser side the score would surely have been far greater.

The next move came from a scrum, with John Dingle again showing his upper body strength, drawing in three and sometimes four Exeter players. He made room for Dartmouth's back row to pounce and Dec Hammond put Harry Moores away for Dartmouth's fourth try and the bonus point.

Aaron Hunt made no mistake with the conversion,taking the final score to Dartmouth 29, Exeter 7.

Martin Sharam was named man of the match for using his brilliant rugby brain and putting in some try-saving tackles, his passing and all-round skills. Coach Steve Atkins said if Martin lost a couple of stone in weight he has another couple of seasons left in him!

The Riversiders would like to thank Alan, Pauline and their staff for doing the catering, chicken calamari.

There is a quiz night, hosted by Lee Chase at the rugby club tonight at 7.30pm. Teams are of four and it will cost £10 a team. First prize will be two large pizzas and a bottle of wine. The prize is kindly donated by Dave Fahay from the Market House Inn.

Dartmouth take on New Cross in the semi-final of the Junior Cup this Saturday with a 2pm kick off.

There will be a collection going around for the semi-final, as DRFC have to pay the Referee and his two touch judges so the money raised will