Bournemouth coach Jon Sanchez said you need “absolutely everything” to go your way in important top-of-the-table clashes.
The front running Lions mastered the soaking wet North Devon conditions to triumph 16-7 over their closest South West Premier rivals - second placed Barnstaple.
It was the first time Sanchez’s side had ever triumphed at Pottington Road before, and he put it down to playing ‘smart rugby.’
He said: “We have never won there before so I am absolutely chuffed to bits to win at Barnstaple at last.
“I just thought we played smart rugby - that is the word I would use - we were smarter than them and we played in the right areas of the pitch.
“Some of the tactical decisions we made were just absolutely phenomenal today, and our defence just held up as well.”
As well as sealing their 13th victory out of the first 14 games of the season, the table toppers even managed to deny their opponents any bonus points.
Kicker Grant Hancox sent over a late penalty in the dying moments of the match to push nine points clear of their opponents to the delight of Sanchez.
Prior to that, the Bournemouth side had flexed their mental muscle to shut out Barnstaple for the final quarter, and Sanchez said they earned their luck.
He added: “We stuck at it and we never let them gain a foothold in the game whatsoever, and to get that three points at the end with a penalty to deny them anything at all from the game whatsoever was just the icing on the cake for us.
“To deny them even a losing bonus point either which just pushed us further away from everyone else in the table makes me absolutely ecstatic.
“We walked out for the second half and we were talking about what the wind was doing because we had the wind behind us in the first half.
“So we knew we had to manage that in the second half because when we walked out for the second half - the wind suddenly turned in our favour and that is how it felt today.
“It just felt like everything we did today was just the right thing to do at the right time.”

By Will Perringwood

Bournemouth Rugby Reporter

Photos by Bob Collins, with thanks to Barnstaple RFC