THE Cornish All Blacks have announced three new signings ahead of their return to the South West Premier in September.

The Polson Bridge outfit only secured promotion on April 27 after a thrilling comeback win over Old Centralians in a play-off.

Despite a young, primarily homegrown squad, it hasn’t stopped joint coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren recruiting.

They have brought in Plymouth Marjon students Rhys Carpenter (prop) and Louis Ogilvie (winger) and resigned young prop Rory Cinnamond, who has been playing in Hong Kong where he recently won the country’s Premier League with Sandy Bay.

His impressive form has seen him called up to their national team for the Under 20 World Trophy in Brazil later this summer.

While Cinnamond made a handful of appearances back in the 2017/18 season, CABs fans won’t be as familiar with Carpenter and Ogilvie who go to university with current first-team players Rikki Bentham, Dan Goldsmith and Torin Clarke.

Prop Carpenter, whose nickname is ‘the fridge’, hails from Saltash and has made sporadic appearances for Plymstock Albion Oaks in the Devon and Cornwall League, while Bristolian Ogilvie turns out for Thornbury when he is at home and played against Launceston in both fixtures last term in South West One (West).

On his decision to move to Polson Bridge, Ogilvie said: “I have travelled twice to Polson in the two previous seasons coming away with a true sight of a passionate club heading in the right direction both on and off the field.

“Due to these matters I feel there is no better place to develop my rugby, and with a truly skilful bunch of lads right through the squad, I can only see that happening. Also, with my studies being so close in Plymouth, I feel it would be a missed opportunity. I feel I can add a prominent force in attack with a constant threat to the try line.”

Talking about his new winger, Westren said: “A few lads were already aware of him and said he was a decent player. He was travelling back to Bristol to play his rugby for Thornbury and played against us, so he was someone we identified we could speak to. And with Will Morton heading back to Saltash, it opened up a spot within the squad, so we took the opportunity to get him on board.

“He’s a slightly different winger to what we’ve got as he’s a bit taller and gives us an option in the air. But what we like about him the most is that he doesn’t take a backward step and when we played against him last season he performed well both both occasions.”

Carpenter was also enthused at the prospect of pulling on the famous black shirt.

He said: “A few of my mates already play down at CABs and I’ve seen the progress they’ve made and the club made last season and I wanted to be a part of that success in the hope that this team will help me reach my full potential in a sport I love.

“The move came about after my Varsity game in early April. Ian Goldsmith messaged me asking if I was looking for a club team and if I’d ever considered CABs, and that has opened the door for me to come down to CABs to play rugby at a brilliant club alongside my mates.”

Carpenter hopes next season goes as well as the one he just enjoyed for Marjon.

“I’m a dedicated player and I’m still young and eager to learn. I’m really looking forward to playing rugby at such a close club, the connection they have with Launceston is incredible, I watched a few of their games last season and I just knew I wanted to be part of the team and part of that atmosphere.

“I played there a long time ago when I was in the colts, but I was playing for a different team back then. My uni rugby was really successful, we went unbeaten in the league (BUCS Western 3A) and we also won our Varsity game against Plymouth Uni. Playing with the CABs boys at uni has definitely promoted the move because we worked well at uni and I’d like that at my club as well.”

Talking about his new recruit, Westren added: “He’s a Saltash lad and is also at uni with some of the boys we’ve got.

“Prop is an area where we probably needed a bit of depth, especially with Chae (Jenkins) being out for a year. Rhys is ready to take that step by playing at a better level, so we’re looking forward to him joining.”

Carpenter will face stiff competition from Rikki Bentham, Greg Thomas, Andy Knight and Rory Cinnamond, who is also returning.

Westren added: “Obviously Rory was here before. We weren’t sure of his plans but as it turns out he is coming back to the area to start his working life and we snapped up the opportunity to have him back. He gives us something which we’ve been potentially been lacking with his carrying and tackling ability.”

Getting promoted means you inevitably need to improve your squad, although Westren knows that the players who got them up need to be given the chance to prove themselves.

He said: “It’s a funny one, with the boys that got us promoted, they deserve the chance to keep us in the league above.

“But we decided that if we did add to the squad, it had to be in an area which we needed or a certain player which we just couldn’t turn down.

“But that being said, we are going into a tougher league where the attritional rate is likely to be higher so we need that depth and to keep the players on their toes and progressing as a group.

“If there’s competition for places, everyone knows they’ve got to be at it.”

Westren and Goldsmith are looking to finish off the squad with a couple more additions.

Westren said: “We’re looking at potentially one or two more. There’s one more that we feel we require and one which if it becomes available to us and is too good to let it slip through, then we feel our squad would be complete.

“We’ve lost Will and Chae, so essentially by the start of the season we’ll have hopefully replaced what we’ve lost and added three more.”