Winger Simon Harris returned for the Kingsteignton side, forcing the ever improving Danny Walters on to the bench and pacy flanker Julian Hull to the other wing to accommodate young Kyle Bennett at blindside.
The visitors started into the teeth of a howling wind, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as kicking for territory was an impossibility.
The hosts did not see the ball for the first 20 minutes as the New Cross pack showed great control in inching their way upfield.
It was not pretty to watch but was effective as ground was slowly made.
On the odd occasion the backs saw the ball, inside centre Henry Lygo required several defenders to haul him down. Scrum half Nick Player was having an armchair ride behind the ruck and it was from one of these that he spotted a mismatch on the blindside with centre Louis Griffiths and Hull up against two props. Griffiths attracted both defenders and set Hull free to power through two would be tacklers to score in the corner.
New Cross were aware that the home outside centre was the main playmaker and in order to compete he would need to be shut down. On his first carry, Lygo hit him with a tackle that would not have been out of place at the Superbowl, forcing the Crabs into a rethink. They probed the corners and forced the visitors into making errors, from which capitalised with a try under the post from the home number eight. The conversion came back off the upright, but the Salcombe fly half struck over two long range penalties just before half-time to put his side six points up at the break.
With the wind behind them in the second half, New Cross dominated territory and possession.
Fly half Ryan Wotton kept Salcombe pegged back deep in their own half, forcing them to run out of defence. Lygo and Griffiths contained these attacks, allowing second row Bruce Whiting and replacement flanker Steve Valance to come up with some impressive turnovers.
Number eight and skipper Tim Prowse got in on the act and forced his opposite number into conceding a five-metre scrum.
The front row of Dane Payton, Paul Jelley and Jamie Halse were fired up and had the home pack in all sorts of trouble.
After several reset scrums the visitors were marching over the line when the home front row collapsed, but a penalty try was not awarded.
Shortly after, winger Harris was held up over the line and Halse went agonisingly close to his first try in two seasons.
The ever impressive Shaadi Fakih provided the moment of magic when he split the home defence and carried to within a yard of the line. Griffiths then spun the ball to Jelley, who continued his scoring streak with a good finish in the corner. Wotton missed the conversion, but was on target with two penalties to leave the visitors five points up with seconds remaining.
Salcombe threw the dice one last time and a neat backs move saw them score in the corner and force extra time.
New Cross were playing into the wind and, following the exertions of normal time, were running out of steam and hanging on, which led to another successful penalty for the home team in the first ten-minute period.
The final ten minutes saw New Cross pressing hard.
Despite the home side killing the ball time and again, no penalties were awarded and with the last play of the match a speculative play handed Salcombe another penalty which was converted to put the Crabs through to the semi finals.
Man of the match went to Henry Lygo for a dominant display in midfield.