Saturday, September 15

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North Petherton 14

Cornish All Blacks 48

THE Cornish All Blacks maintained their perfect start to the season with an eight-try victory at North Petherton on Saturday.

Launceston were forced to make three changes from their 28-22 victory over Newent seven days earlier as hooker Levent Bulut (shoulder) and lock Andy Knight (shoulder) were injured in training during the week while full-back Reuben Edwards failed to recover from a knee injury.

In Bulut’s and Knight’s places came Jordan Duke at hooker and George Bone at number seven which meant that regular number eight Torin Clarke slotted into the second-row and skipper Lloyd Duke moved from his usual role at openside-flanker to fill Clarke’s shoes.

In the backs, Dan Pearce ably slotted in for Edwards at 15 after being on holiday the week before while Tom Sandercock returned to the starting line-up in place of Shaun Crawford who moved to the bench where he was joined by Ed Dudden and debutant prop Alex Bartlett.

This Launceston side that finished last season off well, are largely unchanged from last season, but are now looking a good side capable of dominating any team.

The half-back pairing of Adam Collings and Glenn Coles do all the simple things superbly well, controlling the tempo and where on the pitch the team should play their rugby.

They kicked into the opposition half and got the game moving at a fast pace, they ensured the ball was moved into the opposition half as soon as possible, they passed good quick ball, won the set piece and at turnover speedily to the strike runners of new recruit Will Morton, Dan Pearce and Martin Kneebone.

But not only in attack are this side much improved. The players competed to win plenty of turnovers and the defence outplayed the Somerset side in contact situations through their speed, commitment and technique.

It only took nine minutes for Launceston to score their first of eight tries although they could easily have had many more, such was their dominance despite North Petherton being a bigger, heavier and more experienced side.

Brandon Rowley scored the opener after Clarke stole a lineout deep in the home 22. After a maul and drive, Rowley broke away to score. Coles converted the first of his four conversions.

Two minutes later, after another lineout in opposition 22, North Petherton won the ball, but Lloyd Duke competed and drove through their maul, before securing the ball to run through unopposed to score.

Two further first-half tries were scored by the swift and elusive pair Pearce and Morton.

Pearce ran onto a defence-splitting pass from player/coach Ryan Westren while Morton showed his natural predatory instincts.

The clever Collings put in a box-kick down the right-hand side for Morton to chase.

The Cornwall flyer caught it on the bounce and then ran in from 30 metres to score.

It could have been even better for the Polson Bridge outfit but Clarke had a try disallowed after the referee adjudged him to have made a double movement when he was tackled just short of the line.

Marc Williams sustained a head injury just short of half-time and played no further part in the game.

In the second-half Launceston made sure they did not relax or lose their momentum or concentraion as they did against Newent.

Petherton did score two late tries but the game was well decided by then as Launceston scored a further four tries in the second-half. All of them were similar in that Launceston secured the ball deep in their own half, but ran and passed the ball to players running at pace and into space and were scored by loosehead-prop Rikki Bentham, Kneebone, Pearce and replacement centre Crawford.

Coles just missed converting the final try, kicking the ball high over the left hand post, denying the side a 50 point score.

The All Blacks will hope for a repeat performance when they host third-placed local rivals Okehampton on Saturday (3pm), who themselves have won all three games so far.

Player/coach Ryan Westren said: “At half-time we made a big point about making sure we didn’t do what we did the week before.

“In the second-half we were up the hill against the wind so we wanted to exert our dominance early in the half and we just smothered them.

“Last year they only lost to the top three at home. So we knew they have a fair bit about them at home, especially in front of a decent crowd.

“But it was really pleasing to see us stick to our processes and come away with a good win.

“From a coach’s point of view we were ruthlessly effective. We played the right field position and then only went wide when we’d earned the right. They made us work extremely hard but we were the better side.

“It was such a team effort as no-one stood out by a million miles. However Martin Kneebone was really good. There’s a fair bit of competition in that area and he really stood up.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s local derby, Westren expects it to be an excellent encounter.

He said: “I’m expecting a massive ding-dong. They got the better of us early on in the season last year and we beat them at home so it’s currently one-all.

“Saying that, we’re pretty confident. We’ll approach it like any other game. We need to make sure we don’t get too emotional. Emotion is a part of it but we need to make sure we don’t get too worked up. Just because they’re from 20 miles up the road, we don’t want to change what we’re doing.”

Despite that, Westren knows the Okes carry a big threat. Former All Black Robbie Dugard is still going strong in the front-row as well being the forwards coach, number eight and head coach Gareth Evans has returned from Barnstaple and Bevon Armitage, brother of former England players Steffon and Delon, is the new backs coach and turns out in the centre.

He said: “They’ve got some guys who’ve played at a good level. They’re experienced and have a dangerous backline.

“They’re not too dissimilar to us, they’re probably bigger than us up front but our pack has been excellent so far.

“As usual that’s where the game is likely to be won, whoever comes out on top there should win the game.”

Westren is also hoping that his forwards and Edwards will be fit.

He added: “I’m pretty positive that they’ll all be available for selection.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Pearce, Morton, Westren, Sandercock, Kneebone, Coles, Collings; Bentham, J Duke, Jenkins, Clarke, Williams, Rowley, Bone, L Duke (captain)

Replacements: Bartlett, Dudden, Crawford

Tries: Rowley, L Duke, Morton, Pearce 2, Bentham, Kneebone, Crawford

Convs: Coles 4

Pens: N/A

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Martin Kneebone