DEVON under-18s produced an impressive performance to score eight tries in a 40-10 victory over Buckinghamshire at Hartpury College on Sunday.

The game was the county side’s first outing in two years and it proved to be a memorable one.

However, they were slow starting and went behind after five minutes, but, after soaking up some early Bucks pressure and getting the journey to Gloucestershire out of their legs, they started to play some free-flowing rugby.

Flanker Beck Finnemore pulled them level with a try on 25 minutes and the score remained at 5-5 until the second half.

Devon’s half-time team talk with the coaches seemed to inspire the players and they really turned on the style after the interval.

They took just four minute to take the lead with a try by replacement hooker Jack Winzer.

Buckinghamshire had no response to this and Devon scored another four unanswered tries in the space of 15 minutes through fly-half Harrison Greenslade, replacement back-row Ethan Millard,  prop Callum Arnold and centre Tully Skett.

At this point the game was already won but Bucks came up with a really good try to reduce the gap to 30-10.

But Devon bounced back with some outstanding backs play that led to centre Jack Connor going over for their seventh try of the afternoon.

And there was still time for one more with replacement Adam Lilley making it 40-10 in a match where there were no conversions.

The fixture was a chance for the players to try and impress the South West Divisional England selectors.

The Devon coaches are hopeful that after such a great performance that a few players might be in contention for regional squad.

The team manager Sean Cook said he was very pleased and impressed with the performance and praised the coaching staff and players for all the hard work put in behind the scenes and training leading up to the game.