ANY hopes Salisbury had of keeping the previous week's winning team together disintegrated during the week and with it any realistic hope of staying in the Powergen Cup, writes Stuart McArdell.

Hooker Dan Hobbs, who had courageously stayed on the field against Stow, despite a broken nose, had to undergo an operation which will side-line him until Christmas, while the loss of both locks and the half back pairing meant fielding a side capable of beating the current South West Two (West) league leaders became impossible.

Indeed, players were still being drafted into the squad as late as Friday night.

Undaunted, Salisbury undertook the 150-mile journey to Brixham with the side not so much reshuffled as reconstructed - and paid the price of their temerity with a bruising defeat at the hands of a Devonshire side whose average age was only 22.

Brixham capitalised on Salisbury's travel-weary legs and smashed in two early tries before Joe Falconer, making an impressive first team debut at scrum half, clawed back five points.

The home side increased the pressure and Salisbury started missing tackles allowing Brixham to run in a further three tries.

Just before half time a charge down by Perry, playing at replacement hooker, gave Salisbury a scrum in Brixham's 22 and Dave Bell snaked through the defence to score under the posts before adding the two points.

But the second half reinforced the problem of fielding a scratch side against a stable one as Salisbury def-ended both naively around the scrum and, with the exception of captain Bell, ineffectually in the backs resulting in Brixham adding a hat trick of tries in the opening quarter.

Salisbury's only opportunity came from the third restart when a good 'steal' saw a promising three-quarter move, but the ball was lost in the final pass and with it the chance of a try.

To add to Salisbury's woes, Triniman and West, two of the side's biggest hitters, both left the field with injuries as the Fishermen ran in another try.

As the referee was preparing to blow 'no side', winger Pete Upton scored a consolation try following a 40-yard cross field run.

On Saturday, Salisbury head to Windsor for their next league game.