LAUNCESTON ensured they ended the year with three straight victories with courtesy of a 29-20 success against Malborough.

The Blacks travelled after confidence-boosting wins against Exmouth and Matson and named an unchanged starting XV for the trip to Wiltshire.

Marlborough started brightly enough as No.8 Uraia Uluvesi exploited a gap in the Blacks’ defence, but he tackled by a decent cover tackle from Charlie Atwood.

Moments later, home fly-half George Shakespeare went even closer, striking the crossbar with a penalty attempt, before the ball fell into the hands of George Harris and the visitors were able to clear.

At the other end, Launceston showed their rivals how it should be done, breaking the deadlock with the game’s opening try. A penalty kicked to the corner from James Tucker saw the visitors use the set-piece to set the platform from which winger Ollie Bebbington was able to do the rest. Tucker slotted the conversion for 7-0.

Again, Launceston’s driving maul was key to their side’s second try, which arrived on 12 minutes when Cam Fogden broke through the defensive line and offloaded to Atwood to score.

Marlborough dominance in the scrums was evident and they reduced the deficit when they forced their rivals over their try line in the 23rd minute where Uluvesi dotted the ball down.

The game continued to be keenly contested, but it was the CABs who added to their tally, Tucker landing a penalty, before a clever attack saw the ball spun wide to winger Billy Martin who, in the 38th minute, ran around the outside of the opposition to make it 20-5.

Even then there was still time for the hosts to reduce the lead before the break as after a scrum and a few phases, replacement Simon Pilkington went over with Shakespeare’s boot making it 20-12 at the turn.

On the resumption, Launceston flanker Ben Hancock was shown a yellow card for not wrapping around in a tackle, Marlborough kicked down field, won a line-out deep in the Blacks’ half and used a maul to gain territory before Pilkington dotted down.

The home side began testing the Blacks defence and broke through, but the Marlborough player was tackled before he could reach the tryline and a scuffle started, resulting in Launceston second-row George Bone being sent to the sin-bin and Uluvesi being shown a red card for a strike to the face.

A few moments later, Marlborough were awarded a penalty for the Blacks being offside. They chose to ‘tap and go’ and after a few phases, forced their way over the try line, but Martin and Fogden held the ball up.

Two successful penalties from Tucker kept the scoreboard ticking over, before the home side set up a thrilling final five minutes when replacement Rokodaini Waicolayawa moved his side to within a converted try.

However, Marlborough gave away a penalty for being offside deep in their half and the CABs opted to kick for points. Tucker stepped forward to round off the scoring and give the All Blacks a sixth victory of the season.

It was a physical game with both sides having injuries, the Blacks having to sub Alex Bartlett and Bryant off the pitch, but the Christmas break gives Launceston time to recover before welcoming Sidmouth in their first game of 2026 on January 10.

LAUNCESTON: James Tucker; Billy Martin, Ben Bryant, Cam Fogden, Ollie Bebbington; George Hillson, Charlie Atwood; Alex Bartlett, Rory Mead, Mitch Hawken; Charlie Tummon, George Bone; Ben Hancock, George Harris, Brandon Rowley (capt). Replacements: Oli Martin, Charlie Short, Tom Sandercock.

Tries: Bebbington, Atwood, B Martin; Convs: Tucker; Pens: Tucker (4).

Launceston man-of-the-match: George Harris.