Barnstaple delivered the performance demanded of them when they trounced Maidenhead 63-13 in National Three South West.
Director of rugby Kevin Squire said only a big win would do – and with Will Topps and Jimmy Manley bagging two tries each, he got his wish.
After winning just once in the last four games, Squire is looking for a run of victories and he is confident Maidenhead was the launch pad.
"Maidenhead are down at the bottom of the table for a reason and I would have been disappointed if we hadn't won comfortably," said Squire.
Maidenhead kept a lid on Barnstaple in the first half, changing round 18-5 down, but were blown away in the second by seven tries to one. Three of those tries were scored during the ten minutes Barum were down to 14 men with hooker Sam Roberts in the sin-bin.
Barnstaple's full tally of try scorers was Manley (two), Topps (two), Tom Heard, Toby Williamson, Winston James, Josh Lee and Ben Vellacott. Neil Giddy put over two penalties and six conversions.
Exmouth are sitting comfortably in third place behind London Irish and Weston after a 61-10 win over Chippenham.
Chippenham were still in it at half time at 15-10 down, but not for the first time this season ran out of puff in the second half and were taken apart. It was the manner of that dismantling that pleased Exmouth coach Jon Hill.
"We had the edge in every area apart from the line-out," said Hill. "The scrum went well, our broken play in the second half was outstanding and we were scoring tries from our own 22 at times."
Mike Wilson and Jack Downie bagged first-half tries with Jack Westlake (two), Ross Moorshead, Tom Kill, Paul Morgan, Jamie Harris and Andrew Powell (two) following suit in the second half.
Brixham became the latest side to come unstuck against leaders London Irish, going down 49-20 at Sunbury.
"Give them a sniff of a chance in the backs and they will take it – a most impressive side," said player-coach Ian Morgan. Dylan Flashman collected two tries for Brixham.
Newton Abbot came back from 17-0 down to beat Amersham 28-17. "We got away with it again as we did against Chippenham, but this business of giving the opposition a head start has to stop," said director of rugby Roy Henderson.
Two tries from Brett Stroud and a third from Stephen Ward got Newton back on track.
Taunton used a day off in National Two South caused by the demise of Rugby Lions to defeat University of Bath 26-10 in the Renault Somerset Cup.
