Saturday, March 30

Tribute South West One (West)

Keynsham 10

Cornish All Blacks 27

THE Cornish All Blacks remain firmly in the hunt for the title after seeing off a spirited Keynsham side at Crown Fields.

The visitors hadn’t played for three weeks following a bye weekend and Coney Hill’s decision to concede last Saturday.

Joint coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren were without the trio of Dan Goldsmith, Torin Clarke and Reuben Edwards due to Sunday’s Cornwall Under 20s County Championship quarter-final against Hertfordshire but were able to give Marc Williams a first start since the autumn following a serious knee injury while there were also recalls for Adam Collings and Harry Lightfoot, while Westren and Glenn Coles were back from injury having been late withdrawals at Devonport Services last time out.

Despite an up and down campaign, Keynsham had lost only twice at home and the All Blacks knew that they would need to start strongly in their quest to cut down Okehampton’s two-point lead at the top of the table.

The Cornishmen started brightly and took a third minute lead through a Glenn Coles penalty from right in front of the posts on the 22-metre line.

They dominated possession in the opening ten minutes and extended their lead as Will Morton scored.

Good work by the forwards eventually saw the ball spread out wide where an overlap was created for Greg Thomas to pass the ball to Morton in space 20 metres out, with the flying winger beating full-back Ciaran Chester to the line. Coles added the extras for a 10-0 lead.

The next 20 minutes of the half saw both teams battle away in the centre of the pitch without any opportunities created for either side. However, the remainder of the half saw plenty of action with Keynsham reducing the lead to just three points on the half-hour mark.

Solid pick and gos by the heavy home pack saw lock Jack Cowen bundle his way over from close range. Inside-centre Sam Challenger kicked the conversion.

However, it took less than four minutes for the visitors’ lead to move back to ten points.

Tom Sanderock made an excellent tackle in midfield and counter-rucked with the ball sliding out at the side where skipper Lloyd Duke picked up the ball. As he was about to be tackled he passed to Brandon Rowley who showed excellent pace to run in unopposed from 35 metres despite the best efforts of the Keynsham defence to catch him. Coles again added the rest.

At 17-7 up the All Blacks would have been happy with their efforts in the Bristol sun, but Keynsham reduced the lead by three thanks to a Challenger penalty after Williams was adjudged to have tackled a player without the ball. But Coles ensured the score was 20-10 at half-time after the home side were penalised for offside, by kicking a penalty from the 22, ten metres to the left of the posts.

Not many teams match up well to Keynsham’s strong scrum, but Launceston did exactly that.

The Cornishmen nearly extended their lead five minutes into the second-half as Duke was adjudged to have been held up over the line following a driving maul.

Their frustrations would have doubled shortly after. Keynsham had a scrum close to their own line before the ball fell loose and Thomas pounced to score. However, despite no-one complaining, the referee adjudged there to have been a knock-on.

This seemed to spark the hosts into life, but despite a five-minute spell of incessant pressure on the All Blacks line near the hour, Launceston held out.

The visitors were again bemoaning the referee’s decisions with ten minutes to go. A lineout from 40 metres saw a driving maul formed and with the home side going back at a rate knots, the backs got involved to shove them over the line. However, Sandercock was adjudged to have been held up, despite insisting he had grounded the ball.

The All Blacks’ got the final word in injury-time as replacement prop Chae Jenkins crashed over from less than a yard following a couple of pick and gos after yet another effective maul.

However with Okehampton winning 46-26 at Hornets and Launceston failing to get a try bonus-point, the Devon side’s lead was back at three points with two games to go.

Skipper Lloyd Duke was delighted to get the win at a difficult venue.

He said: “Over the past few weeks we’ve relied heavily on our scrum, but Keynsham were proving more than a match for us on Saturday, which forced us to find other ways to break them down, which is a good thing going into the final two games, when you need more than just a Plan A.”

Duke admitted that the result was paramount considering their lack of playing time.

He said: “Not to have played in three weeks is pretty serious really but we’re only the third team to have gone there and won.

“Obviously there are areas to improve, but as an 80-minute performance away from home, we’ve got to be really pleased.”

Duke was delighted with the return of Williams and paid tribute to his fellow forwards.

He said: “To be fair, Marc looked really good and did well to play for an hour in that heat and the scrum did a really good job as Keynsham dominate most teams in the league in that area. But overall, it was one of those games where everyone really put a shift in.”

As the regular season approaches its final run-in, Duke wants his team-mates to make sure that any slip-ups by Okehampton are punished.

He said: “All we can do is win and put a bit pressure on them. As far as we’re concerned, two more points will guarantee second spot and seven points will guarantee a home play-off. Obviously our aim is to get ten points from our last two games and if Okehampton slip up, that’s on them, but if they don’t, we’ve put ourselves into a strong position with a home play-off to hopefully go up.”

Keynsham’s Bristol-based rivals Thornbury are the visitors to Polson Bridge this Saturday (3pm).

Duke added: “They’re a team that were hard to beat when we played them away from home and they’ll want to win at ours, so they’re definitely not a team we’ll be taking lightly.”

Of the All Blacks’ five defeats, three have come at home with Okehampton, St Ives and Bridgwater & Albion all tasting success, and Duke re-emphasised the importance of focusing on themselves.

He said: “I think it’s quite ironic that whatever happens we’ll end with a better away record than home record. But we have no say in Oke’s final two games so all we can do is apply the pressure and see what happens.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Kneebone, Jacob, Sandercock, Westren, Morton, Coles, Collings; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, J Duke, Williams, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain), Rowley

Replacements: Jenkins, Knight, Mulberry

Tries: Morton, Rowley, Jenkins

Convs: Coles 3

Pens: Coles 2

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Brandon Rowley