Saturday, August 18
Pre-season friendly
Barnstaple 52
AN?UNDERSTRENGTH Launceston warmed up for the new season with a comprehensive defeat at Barnstaple on Saturday.
The All Blacks went into the game without a number of likely starters for the league opener at Lydney next Saturday and it showed, as Barum, who play in the South West Premier following relegation from National League Two (South) in April, ran in a number of late tries.
Launceston’s solitary score came following a great break from skipper Lloyd Duke, which eventually led to a score from Ed Dudden.
Reflecting on the game, joint head coach, Ian Goldsmith, said: “They were a class above us in every department. We knew it’d be a challenge but we were desperate for a tough away fixture as the first away game at Lydney will be hard.
“It was outlined to everyone what the task would be and it showed. They were more physical, quicker and more skillful, and just better than us.”
Barum scored twice in the opening exchanages and Goldsmith admitted that after that it would always be tough.
He said:?“They scored from an interception and a non communication which put them 14-0 ahead after about ten minutes, which is not where we wanted to be. The next 40 minutes were quite even although we knew it wasn’t about the result. Then with about 20 minutes to go we started emptying the bench and they put us to the sword.”
Despite the scoreline, Goldsmith admitted there were some positives, including their try.
He said: “We had some nice structure and a couple of phases and Lloyd broke through. We didn’t panic and they were forced to give away a penalty.
“We’ve talked about being brave and from a quick tap penalty from Jordan Duke, Ed Dudden was about five metres out to score.
“We also showed really good fitness levels and although it sounds a bit silly, at times we showed some really good scrambled defence.
“Brandon Rowley was good in the forwards. He was physical and showed some good skill levels, while in the backs, Reuben Edwards showed glimpses as to what he’s capable of.
“However we need to improve our concentration and our one-on-one tackling and we had too many people going to the rucks.”
Saturday’s scheduled pre-season game against Penryn will still go ahead but in a different format.
Goldsmith said:?“Camborne pulled out of a friendly with Wadebridge (Camels) so Mike Rawlings contacted us to see whether we could do a three-way friendly.
“The second team fixture against Penryn seconds will still stand but each of the three first team squads will play 40 minutes against each other.
“We now have two 40-minute games and we’ll treat them like league games.”
Although Goldsmith and fellow joint head coach Ryan Westren won’t be able to prepare as they would like.
He said:?“We’ll be affected by holidays, work and weddings etc, so we won’t be able to put out a possible squad which goes to Lydney, but that was also the case against Barnstaple and Fullerians.
“But we’ll be looking to do what we’ve been working on all summer, which is to play a physical, quick game.
“The emphasis has been on trying to score more tries which was our main achilles heel last season. When we looked at the stats, although we were third, we were only joint-sixth on the bonus points, and that gave us our big focus for pre-season.
“But we’re looking forward to welcoming both clubs up on Saturday and having a good day. We’re three clubs that like to play good rugby.”
Launceston — Edwards, Kneebone, Westren, Crawford, Pearce, Coles, Mulberry; Knight, J Duke, Jenkins, Williams, Goldsmith, Rowley, Hamilton-Green, L Duke (capt)
Replacements: Bartlett, Lightfoot, Dudden, Bebbington, Snell, Dawe, Vanstone, Sandercock
Tries: Dudden
Convs: Coles
Pens: N/A
Launceston man-of-the-match: Brandon Rowley