Ivybridge senior manager Neil Thomson said his side were looking forward to a re­union with Cleve this weekend after the first XV had a fixtureless weekend last time.

The development side, however, were in action, travelling to neighbours Kingsbridge, with whom the club have a long rivalry from their days in the Western Counties West league.

In the event, Ivy­bridge showed how much their club has grown in the past couple of years and their strength as a whole, as the visitors strolled to victory 49-0.

Thomson admitted the performance had given the coaches some food for thought, saying: ‘The development team did very well last weekend, it shows our strength in depth.

‘Richard Luscombe, who is back with us after a couple of years away, played very well at second row and has been training really hard, he’s clearly put himself in contention for a place in the squad.

‘Pete Abrahams did well coming off the bench for the firsts two weeks ago, so he’s another who is likely to be in contention.’

Speaking about the challenge of Cleve, who topped South West One last year as Ivybridge finished runners-up, he said: ‘The boys are looking forward to it, we’ve had good numbers in training and have been working hard over the past fortnight.

‘Cleve are obviously a team we know well having been promoted with them last season, so we’ll enjoy it.

‘Their away record has been excellent so far, it’s actually the home games they’ve lost, so I’m sure it’ll be tough, but with the world cup final next weekend we have a rest before a trip to Bristol on Novem­ber 7.’

Cleve may have won the league last year, but it is Ivybridge who are showing them how it’s done so far in the National Leagues, sitting pretty in second place as opposed to their visitors, who are ninth.