Cornish?All Blacks 15

THE?Cornish All Blacks slipped to their third successive defeat with a 15-29 defeat to Devon side Ivybridge at Polson Bridge in National League Three South West.

Under the cosh for the whole of the first-half, Jimmy Tucker’s side found themselves still in the game at 0-0 with five minutes of the first-half left.

After Matt Grieveson had slotted over a drop-goal to put Ivybridge 3-0 up, Launceston replied immediately through Fraser Honey’s penalty.

But in such tight and tense games, some slack home defence allowed Billy Pinkus to scramble over for a try from a lineout.

3-10 at the break wasn’t disastrous, but with the game becoming ever more confrontational, Ivybridge continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

A penalty try and a try from James Sloan put the game firmly in Ivybridge’s favour (3-24) before the fireworks really kicked off.

Former All Black, Jamie Tripconey, was among three visiting players to be sent to the sin-bin as they continued to slow the game down the best they could.

With so many players off the field, Launceston came flying forward and were denied two tries.

Firstly, scrum-half Tom Sandercock wriggled his way through but the referee deemed himself to have got in the way of the defence.

Then prop, Oli Stephens, thought he had just worked his way over, however the referee deemed that he couldn’t be sure of the grounding so didn’t award a try.

The first try was coming, and it was second-row Adam Merritt who did the business, however the conversion was missed and it wasn’t long before he found himself in the midst of a scuffle to find himself sitting out of the action for ten minutes.

That proved decisive in the end, as another Launceston player, Lewis Paterson crossed in the corner to seal the game.

Despite Fraser Honey scoring and converting an excellent try of his own, time ran out on Launceston as their difficult start to life in National Three League South West continues.

Things don’t get any easier this weekend as Launceston make the trip down to West Cornwall to take on Camborne who have made an impressive start to life following promotion last term.

Skipper Lloyd Duke, was full of praise for Ivybridge and his own players.

He said: “I thought Ivybridge were a well structured side and the best team we have played this season, both in the forwards and the backs, but I thought we acquitted ourselves very well.

“We went for the full 80 minutes and we had the opportunities but it wasn’t to be.”

Cornish All Blacks

Hawke, Snell, Westren,

Faamatuainu, Theobald, Honey, Sandercock; Parsons, Bulut, Knight, Merritt, Duke J, Duke L (c), Bone, Williams

Subs: Hurdwell, Tharme, Uglow

Tries: Merritt, Honey

Pens: Honey

Convs: Honey