Saturday, February 10

Tribute Cornwall Cup (semi-final)

Wadebridge Camels 22

Cornish All Blacks 13

THE Cornish All Blacks are out of the Tribute Cornwall Cup after losing 22-13 at Wadebridge Camels in their semi-final at the Molesworth Field.

Jimmy Tucker’s men went into the game on a six-match winning run in South West One (West) but were outplayed by their lower-league opponents who are fourth in the Tribute Western Counties (West) division, 14 places below in the league structure.

This was the first time the All Blacks had been eligible for the competition since the 2006/07 season and had made it through to the last four without having to play a game due to a bye in the first-round and a concession by Hayle in the last eight.

Despite their thrilling comeback win (28-17) at Teignmouth a week earlier, the All Blacks made two changes with Torin Clarke replacing Chris McDonald at number eight and winger Harry Dawe coming in for Martin Kneebone, which meant that Dan Pearce switched to full-back.

The early signs were promising for the visitors as a pair of Pearce penalties gave them a 6-0 lead.

Despite going behind, Wadebridge were full of confidence, and pulled a try back through hooker Matt Ballard, who ran in from nearly 40 metres down the left-hand side.

Things got even worse for Launceston before the break as centre James Grubb scythed through the midfield to run in unopposed under the posts.

This time Danny Thomas converted and the All Blacks were 12-6 down as they paid for a series of errors in and around the Wadebridge 22.

Whatever was said in the All Blacks’ changing room at half-time paid dividends as they took the lead just five minutes after the restart.

After a series of carries from the forwards, scrum-half Shaun Crawford popped the ball to tighthead-prop Zac Cinnamond to crash over from close range. Pearce converted to put them 13-12 ahead.

Being the higher-placed team in the league structure, many would have expected the All Blacks to push on and claim a comfortable victory. However on the hour mark they found themselves behind as former All Black Adam Collings sent a long pass out wide to winger Will Pengelly to score in the corner.

The Polson Bridge outfit continued to battle away but to no avail and their lacklustre performance was summed up in the final moments as one of their lineouts went astray, which was eventually seized upon by Ben Humber, who powered home from 40 metres.

That try gave the All Blacks no time to come back as the Camels made it through to a second successive Cornwall Cup final while the visitors will look to bounce back when they welcome Bideford to Polson Bridge on Saturday (2.30pm), which is also the club’s annual ‘Farmers Day’.

Skipper Lloyd Duke was left fuming by the performance, but reiterated that it wasn’t down to complacency.

He said: “We’d talked all week about making sure we’re right at it but apart from our scrum, which was pretty good, Wadebridge dominated for long spells and deserved to win.

“We made a series of handling errors and we also missed plenty of tackles which simply isn’t good enough.

“In the first-half we played with the wind but every time we went near their 22 we seemed to make a mistake, mainly either dropping the ball or doing a forward pass. We had half a dozen good opportunities and we didn’t take any of them. That obviously then put us under extra pressure and lifted them. If we’d executed those opportunities it’d have been a different game. To go in at the break behind made it an uphill battle.

“At half-time we talked about cutting out the errors and we knew that we’d let them off the hook. We wanted to be a bit more direct and we managed to score a decent try through Zac but then the wheels came off again and we didn’t really put them under any pressure. It was very poor and is probably the poorest we’ve played since I’ve been playing. We made error after error and we were never going to beat a team playing like that, especially one who are full of confidence.”

The visit of Bideford on Saturday will give the All Blacks the chance of making it three home victories in a row against teams who they’ve lost to on their travels after beating Newent and Okehampton since Christmas.

Bideford won 20-0 back in the autumn and Duke admits that they owe the home fans a performance.

He said: “Saturday can’t come quick enough and we’ve got two wrongs to put right — to make up for last week and also to get a bit of payback for the defeat up at Bideford. Although we did have a number of injuries at the time, we were pretty poor. On both occasions (at Wadebridge and Bideford) we’ve let ourselves down and also we didn’t deliver for the supporters who came to watch, so we owe them one.

“That said, Bideford were pretty strong up there. We didn’t have as strong a set-piece and we had a few missing but they played well. I’m quite surprised at where they are in the table but we can’t take anything for granted, especially after last week.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Pearce, H Dawe, Westren, Sandercock, Edwards, Hawke, Crawford; Bentham, Bulut, Z Cinnamond, Williams, Goldsmith, Rowley, L Duke, Clarke

Replacements: R Cinnamond, Parish, McDonald, J Dawe, Kneebone

Tries: Z Cinnamond

Convs: Pearce

Pens: Pearce 2