National League Three (South West)

Hornets 31

Cornish All Blacks 17

AGAIN the Cornish All Blacks were left to rue some silly errors as they lost 31-17 at the Weston-super-Mare based club.

The first twenty minutes was a scrappy affair with both teams sizing each other up.

However, the hosts upped the tempo and were rewarded with two tries.

Firstly, after home winger Ben Fry was held up, the ball eventually found its way to Chris Francis who crossed the line.

It was soon try time again when following a line-out, Sean Disney found a gap in the All Blacks’ defence. This time the conversion was successful.

12-0 down away from home near half-time is always a difficult task to recover from but Jimmy Tucker’s men reduced the arrears with a brilliant team try.

After new signing Danz Faamatuainu made a clean break, the ball was off-loaded to Dom Theobald whose excellent pass left Ben Hawke with a 2-1 on situation.

The full-back confidently passed the ball out too skipper Lloyd Duke for the easiest of finishes.

Despite the missed conversion, Launceston were in the game. However their task got a lot harder early in the second-half as Sam Balkham burst through a tackle to go in under the posts before the extras were added.

The visitors to their credit continued to keep going, and after an excellent drive, hooker Fred Bulut rumbled over to ensure the deficit remained at seven.

The Cornish All Blacks would have been fancying their chances of an impressive result, but were left with to much to do when Charlie Carter and Ryan Barrow scored further tries.

To their credit, the Cornishmen came roaring back and Martin Kneebone evaded the home defence to get it back to 31-17.

One more converted try would have ensured two bonus points but the Hornets held firm to claim the five points.

Launceston will look to get their first win under their belts on Saturday when they take on Ivybridge in the first of a number of West Country derbies at Polson Bridge this season.

Cornish All Blacks

Hawke, Snell, Westren, Faamatuainu, Kneebone, Honey, Sandercock; Stephens, Bulut, Quinn, Duke J, Merritt, Duke L (c), Bone, Williams

Subs: Parsons, Stringer, Theobald

Tries: L Duke, Bulut, Kneebone

Conversion: Honey

Pens: N/A