St Mary's claimed two precious points and avenged their biggest defeat of the season when they defeated a much-fancied Torquay side.

The result is a remarkable turn around as the last time these sides met last month the Devon club romped to a 62-5 win and gave Saints' a rugby lesson.

Mary's remain third from bottom of South West Two West but now trail Yatton only on points difference.

The visitors were unable to get any sort of platform as the Saint pack dominated proceedings with their front row of Dave Hilton, Marcus Jenkins and James Cooke totally dismantling their Devonian counterparts.

The first quarter was largely played between the two 22 metre lines with both teams opting not to kick for any territory but instead hold on to possession.

The breakthrough came on 20 minutes when the referee brandished a yellow card to Torquay scrum half Matt Barlow for showing dissent and, from the resulting penalty, fly-half Charlie Eaton knocked over the kick.

Torquay replied with a well struck 24th minute penalty from full-back Matt Jackson.

Eight minutes later centre Graham Robertson received a pass 50 metres out and brushed off several would be tacklers on his way to claim a try. Eaton converted.

But, on the stroke of half time, Jackson notched up another penalty for the visitors to make it 10-6 at the interval.

Mary's struck again with a try when they battered away at the Torquay line until the defence ran out of numbers with No 8 James Gallagher and the impressive Cooke particularly prominent in the build up before full-back Neil Pearce touched down.

Another Eaton penalty extended the lead four minutes later to put some day light between the teams but Saints were unable to further capitalise on their superior forward power.

Torquay continued to try to play their way out of trouble but the home side's defence was just as aggressive and resilient in the last minute as it was in the first, bringing them a well-deserved victory.