Saturday, October 5

South West Premier

Cornish All Blacks 42

Maidenhead 43

GLENN Coles’ last minute conversion attempt went just wide as Maidenhead overturned a 22-14 half-time deficit to win 43-42 against a vastly-improved Cornish All Blacks at Polson Bridge.

The All Blacks had lost heavily in all three of their fixtures since promotion from the South West Premier, but put in a superb performance in the opening 40 minutes to earn themselves an eight-point lead.

However the Berkshire outfit scored twice within five minutes of the restart to move 26-22 ahead, and although Louis Ogilvie finished off an excellent move in the right-hand corner, two further scores put Maidenhead 40-27 up.

Both sides added to their tallies to leave it at 43-37 with one play remaining.

Remarkably, hooker Levent Bulut’s superb cross-field kick from a penalty advantage was scored by Ogilvie in the far corner, but Coles couldn’t land the difficult conversion as a breathless encounter ended with both sides being applauded off the pitch.

Joint head coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren recalled Tom Sandercock, Coles, Levent Bulut and Dan Goldsmith for the game with a number of players either unavailable or injured.

Sandercock, who had yet to appear at first team level this season due to injury, replaced the unavailable Dan Pearce at full-back while the absence of outside-centre Reuben Edwards due to cuts sustained at Ivybridge a fortnight earlier, meant that Coles returned at fly-half with Westren moving into the midfield.

In the forwards, Tom Bottoms was injured and replaced by Dan Goldsmith who had recovered from shoulder trouble while Gary Gynn was left out in favour of Bulut, which meant Brandon Rowley switched from hooker to number eight.

Player/coach Ryan Westren urged his side to ‘execute the basics on both sides of the ball’ during the week and they did exactly that as they went 10-0 up in the early stages.

On three minutes, skipper Lloyd Duke scythed through a gap in the home defence to run in under the posts, before doing similar to the opposite side of the sticks just four minutes later, following a penalty which was quickly taken by Bulut.

In between, second-row Torin Clarke did superbly to snuff out what seemed a certain try as he intercepted a pass from giant number eight, Dave Cole, in his own 22.

Although Launceston dominated the opening exchanges, the Maids should have scored on 11 minutes as a sweeping backs move to the right-hand side ended with full-back Will Cowan-Dickie dropping the ball when it seemed certain he would score.

However they didn’t have to wait long to get their first try as speedy left-winger Scott Prince intercepted Coles’ pass and ran in from nearly 40 metres.

Impressive inside-centre Ed Keohane added the extras.

On 23 minutes Maidenhead went 14-10 ahead as another good move from left to right saw the onrushing Cowan-Dickie score.

Coles missed a simple penalty to reduce the lead to one but an inspired conclusion to the half saw the CABs go into the break in command.

Firstly, a sweeping move out to the left-hand side saw Westren play in winger Martin Kneebone to go over from 15 metres.

Next, after working their way up the field from their own 22, outside-centre Shaun Crawford placed a superb grubber kick into the left-hand corner, which was fielded into touch by a Maidenhead player.

From the resulting lineout, which was caught by Duke, a series of pick and gos got them to within a couple metres of the line. From the ruck, Bulut crashed over from two yards.

Coles slotted his first conversion of the afternoon for a 22-14 half-time lead.

Maidenhead have high hopes of a promotion push this term and flew out of the blocks after the break, scoring twice in the opening five minutes through Prince, which gave him his hat-trick.

Firstly, an attempted clearing kick from Sandercock was blocked backwards by Prince, which allowed him to pick up the ball and run in unopposed.

Shortly after, the ball broke on the left and he kicked it forward before gathering it and crossing the whitewash.

Although Keohane missed the second conversion, it was 26-22.

To the home side’s credit they looked a threat every time they got the ball in-hand and went back in front on 49 minutes.

From a scrum in line with the posts, the ball was worked out wide to winger Louis Ogilvie to trample over Cowan-Dickie from ten metres.

The away side were the better side after the restart and it showed on 57 minutes as Cole proved far too tough to handle from close-range.

The away side sensed the chance to kill the game off and seemingly did so on 67 minutes as a penalty try was awarded. Prop Greg Thomas was also sin-binned by referee Max Weston.

The final 13 minutes was pure theatre from start to finish.

Despite being 40-27 down and with 14-men, the home side rallied.

On 71 minutes Westren crashed over, which allowed Coles the simplest of conversions to bring them to within six.

However, the visitors went right back up the other end and Keohane notched a penalty to put them nine clear and more importantly, two scores in front.

The All Blacks responded once more and camped themselves on the Maids’ line. But with only a minute left, and knowing that finishing within seven would earn them a second bonus point, Coles kicked the penalty.

Keohane sent the restart deep into the All Blacks 22, meaning that the hosts had one chance to win it and that if the ball went dead then Maidenhead had won.

After multiple phases, including a superb run from replacement full-back Alfie Lang, a penalty advantage was awarded. Knowing that if it went wrong, they’d still get the penalty, Bulut launched a remarkable crossfield kick out to the right corner, which bounced over the line and was scored by Ogilvie.

Coles, who by his usual high standards had an off day with the boot, couldn’t quite get the direction right as Maidenhead left North Cornwall knowing they had got away with one.

The hosts on the other hand can take great pride in their performance and know that if they play like that for the rest of the season, then survival is a real possibility.

Westren was delighted with his players’ efforts.

He said: “In terms of the overall performance, it was right up there in both attack and defence, bar some poorly executed kicks after half-time, and obviously some missed points at goal.

“We played some of the best attacking rugby we’ve seen in three or four years, so hopefully we can now continue with that and continue to tighten up defensively.”

Launceston found themselves trailing early on in their first three encounters, but it was they who started the brighter on Saturday.

Westren said: “We put a big focus on making sure we stamp our authority on the game from the start as opposed to being dictated to.

“Everyone really stepped up and that allowed us to compete with a good Maidenhead side, who have ambitions to go up this year.”

The All Blacks are on the road this weekend when they make the near 400-mile round trip to face Newbury Blues who won South West One (East) last term.

The Berkshire outfit have won once in five outings but crucially have been in games for long periods of time, to earn themselves four bonus points to sit on eight points, five ahead of the Cornishmen.

Westren said: They’re newly-promoted like ourselves and are trying to solidify themselves within the league, so we expect them to be seeing this as a game they really need to get points from.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Sandercock, Ogilvie, Crawford, Westren, Kneebone, Coles, Mulberry; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, Goldsmith, Clarke, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain), Rowley.

Replacements: Carpenter, Cinnamond, Lang.

Tries: L Duke 2, Kneebone, Bulut, Ogilvie 2, Westren.

Convs: Coles 2.

Pens: Coles.

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Louis Ogilvie.