Cornwall U20s 64 Berkshire U20s 3

CORNWALL ran riot at Camborne on Sunday afternoon, scoring ten tries, as they comprehensively defeated their Berkshire counterparts 64-3 in their opening County Championship group game.

Despite a slow start, the set-piece came under early pressure from the Berkshire eight, Cornwall soon got on top of their opponents with an opening try from full-back Toby Robinson following a tap and go from scrum-half Noah Nash a chip kick was missed by the Berkshire cover and Robinson pounced to score. Centre Declan Matthews scored a second try, following a solo break from his own 22 just moments later.

Berkshire came close to reducing the arrears, when Cameron Golby-Barr was hauled down short of the line by covering wing, Truro’s Ethan Tyler.

The visitors then butchered a golden chance, when they failed to work an overlap as the Cornish defence scrambled across to cover.

Robinson made a great break before the ball found its way to Tyler, the Truro winger, scoring Cornwall’s third try. Wing Cav Boyer added two conversions to make it 19-0.

Berkshire’s woes continued as their hooker Griffri Whiston was yellow carded for a high tackle just before the break.

Cornwall made full use of the man advantage at the start of the second half as Matthews broke the cover with his skipper Will Gilder in support to take the scoring pass for the bonus point try. Number eight Max Duggan was having an influential game for Cornwall constantly catching the eye.

Berkshire looked to find a way back into the game but they were undone by two interception tries from Matthews and Boyer, the St Austell winger kicking all three conversions to put Cornwall 40-0 up.

Berkshire pulled three points back with a penalty from Jake Finlay, but that was the only crumbs Cornwall dropped from the table as they wrapped up the game with further tries from Tyler, replacements Harry Smith and Seb Firth before Tyler completed his hat-trick with arguably the try of the game a sweeping move from 60-metres, with Matthews feeding Tyler for a score in the West Bank corner. Tyler banged over a couple of late conversions for a 19 point haul for the game.

Cornish All Blacks’ player Tom Sandercock was delighted with Cornwall’s performance against Berkshire. The young centre was instrumental in many of his side’s scores on Sunday and feels that there is a good buzz amongst the squad this season.

He said: “I am delighted with the way the game went, we wanted to play a fast open game and we were able to do that today, the changing room is buzzing after that performance today.

“Our decision making was spot on today and I think that the hard work we’ve put in under our coaches Mike Rawlings, Bryn Jenkins and Matt Shepherd showed. The forwards did the donkey work and we used the ball they won well, eight of our tries came from the backs today and some of those scores were top draw. We have got a lot of pace in our side and that’s the aim to play a fast off-loading game.”

Both Tom’s team-mates from Launceston, Jack Osborne and Reuben Edwards, came off the bench to contribute in Cornwall’s success.

Tom is looking forward to the next match against Gloucestershire at Redruth on Sunday, February 26. He said: “We have got to keep this momentum going, we will re-group at training next Sunday and plan for the next game, There are always things to work on and we will knuckle down.”

Cornwall U.20 (St Austell unless stated): T Robinson, C Boyer, D Matthews (Redruth), T Sandercock (Launceston), E Tyler (Truro), N Nash (Brixham); A Wright (Redruth), M Healey (Truro), L Lee, M Scott (Saltash), C Teague (Wadebridge Camels), S Sayer (Camborne), W Gilder (Capt), M Duggan.

Replacements: J Bishop (St. Ives), K Vinson (Truro), J Osborne (Launceston), H Smith (Wadebridge Camels), S Firth (Falmouth), R Edwards (Launceston), H Jones (unattatched).

Cornwall scores: Tries, Robinson, Matthews (2), Tyler (3), Gilder, Boyer, Smith, Firth, Cons, Boyer (5), Tyler (2)

Yellow Cards: Whitson (39), Walters (64) both Berkshire

Referee: Brad Bignell (Bristol RS).