Bournemouth head coach Will Croker is expecting something to give when his unbeaten South West Premier leaders travel to Exmouth on Saturday.
The hosts are just 12 points behind Croker’s men in fourth having triumphed in all of their home fixtures so far this season.
With The Lions enjoying a perfect nine wins from their opening nine games, Croker says someone’s perfect record will come to an end.
He said: “It is going to be an interesting game because they are doing very well and are undefeated at home, and are five wins from five games so far at home this season, so something has to give in terms of our records - whether it be our undefeated one or their home record.
“Any game against Exmouth is always a bit of a battle - there is such a longstanding rivalry between the two clubs having played each other so many times over the years since the league structures came in.
“We have got to come out early and we have got to get stuck into them right from the get go and if we can get our noses in front then i think we have a defensive structure which is strong enough to keep them at bay but if we allow them to stay in the game - then being the good team that they are - then they will stay in the games for long periods.”
Croker has been hit with personnel problems this week with Mike Haines injured, new dad Sam Hardcastle unavailable and Freddie Gleadowe also missing.
But Croker has plenty in reserve and he says he is more than happy with what he has got coming in.
He added: “Obviously we have lost Mike Haines to his injury which we are hoping will not be as bad as first thought and although he is making good progress, he is still going to be out for a long, long time.
“We have also lost Freddie Gleadowe to unavailability and Sam Hardcastle is having some paternity leave following the birth of his new son.
“Of course we have said goodbye to Hamish Renwick who has gone to work for the ski season, so coming in this week is Dan Stewart on the wing who has obviously been such a good performer for the first team over the years and he really does not have any sort of weakness in his game - he is a wonderful rugby player - and a great try scorer.
“Karim Lynch comes back in at full-back having been out with a knee injury and we bring Harry Leadbetter up onto the bench having been performing very well for the Seconds and done a really god job for them and Ali Bennett comes into the back row for Hamish and we have moved Mike Pope to scrum-half in Sam’s absence and the bench spot has been taken by Carlos Snell who again is someone who has been playing very well for us earlier on in the season.”

Team for the bottom: Bournemouth: Karim Lynch; Adam Higgins, Grant Hancox, Scott Chislett, Dan Stewart; Adam Davies, Mike Pope; Joe Tarrant, Alan Manning, Gianluca Firetto; Ben Roberts, Joe Rees; Jack Hennings, Ben Russell, Ali Bennett. Replacements: Michael Davies, Carlos Snell, Harry Leadbetter.