Saturday, March 2

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Cornish All Blacks 90

Cullompton 7

MARTIN Kneebone scored a hat-trick as the Cornish All Blacks ran riot against struggling Cullompton at Polson Bridge.

The All Blacks were in action for the first time since a thrilling 42-39 victory at Hornets 14 days earlier and made two changes as the fit-again Torin Clarke replaced Harry Lightfoot at blindside-flanker while number eight Brandon Rowley, who scored the winning try in Weston-super-Mare, was recalled in place of Dan Goldsmith, which meant Jordan Duke was switched into the second-row.

There was also a return from injury on the bench for scrum-half Adam Collings in place of Shaun Crawford, who played for the seconds in a 12-10 win at Okehampton.

Cullompton have been ravaged by injuries for large parts of the season, and it was clear from the outset that the All Blacks would be too good.

After four minutes, a lineout 10-metres out led to a driving maul which was stopped. But after a series of pick and gos towards the posts, prop Greg Thomas burrowed his way over from a metre. Glenn Coles missed the conversion.

The Launceston faithful had to wait just another four minutes for the second try as strong runs from Andy Knight and Thomas eventually ended with Rikki Bentham running in from 15 metres. This time Coles converted.

The All Blacks added a further two tries before the 20-minute mark.

First, on 12 minutes, some good passing in their own 22 allowed Kneebone to sprint away down the left-wing. He was eventually tackled but good passing by player/coach Ryan Westren and Knight allowed Coles to give the ball to right-winger Aiden Jacob to run infield off the touchline and dot down from 30 metres.

Kneebone was a constant threat all afternoon and he scored from his own 22 with a quarter of the game gone following good work from Levent Bulut and Coles.

At 24-0 down, Cullompton were staring down the barrel. However, they did grab their only try of the day shortly after as some ambitious handling close to their own line, resulted in the ball being spilled into the danger zone, allowing skipper Sean Mardell to fall on the loose ball. Josh Luxon kicked the extras.

Launceston added a fifth try on 36 minutes. A scrum on halfway saw Westren give the ball to the onrushing Reuben Edwards to sneak through a gap and run all of the way to the line. Westren got himself on the scoresheet before the break. After a good run by Jacob into the Cullompton 22, Harry Lightfoot did well to pick up the loose ball before breaking a couple of tackles and releasing a speculative offload for Westren to do the rest. Coles kicked both for a 38-7 half-time lead.

The second-half was a damage limitation exercise for the Devon side, but they could only hold for three minutes as Bentham finished off a driving maul after Clarke won a lineout.

On 47 minutes they added an eighth try as a brilliant 30-metre kick from Edwards landed in the Cullompton try area for scrum-half Dom Mulberry to win the race to the line. Coles slotted his fifth conversion for a 50-7 advantage.

Tries were now coming at will, and they added another on 52 minutes as the All Blacks drove themselves over from a five-metre scrum with Rowley grabbing the important touch.

Edwards grabbed his second on 55 minutes as a clearing kick from Coles inside his own 22 was dropped and Edwards was first to the loose ball to run in from halfway.

A tenth try came on the hour as following a scrum on the Cullompton 22, full-back Tom Sandercock played in Jacob to run through a gap.

The All Blacks were playing some wonderfully attractive rugby and Collings made a try-scoring return.

Following yet another scrum, the ball was worked out wide to Jacob to run down the touchline before offloading to Clarke, who did likewise to Collings on halfway to scamper his way to the line.

Kneebone is the club’s leading try scorer this term and he added a further two before the end.

First, he received a good pass from Thomas to run in from ten metres before notching a well-deserved hat-trick with five minutes to go after Coles’ brilliant long pass allowed him to beat a couple of defenders to score.

Coles converted once more for a tenth successful attempt from 14.

Westren admits it was nice to finally put someone to the sword.

He said: “It was nice to get a big win. We’ve had a few 60-point hauls which could have been even more but this is the first time we’ve kept our foot on the throttle in these types of games for the whole 80 minutes.

“But fair play to Cullompton, although it was fairly obvious early on that one side was more dominant than the other, it’s great credit to them that they didn’t give up and kept working.”

Westren was pleased with the overall performance, ahead of this weekend’s vital trip to Plymouth to tackle Devonport Services.

He said: “It was pretty ruthless from 1-18 and the bench added good value as well. Martin’s hat-trick was very good, Reuben’s been consistent for us all season and it was lovely to see Aiden Jacob get his first try for the CABs and then back it up.”

Westren also paid tribute to two of his forwards.

He added: “It was great to see Greg Thomas get a full 80, since his return from injury he’s got better with every game and its a sign of his improvement.

“Its also the same with Andy Knight, which is a testament to him. He’s got himself in match shape and put in consecutive 80-minute performances which is great to see.”

Okehampton’s lead at the top over the All Blacks remains at three points after edging past St Ives 26-24, and Westren is continuing to focus on the short-term.

He said: “We’re just taking each game as it comes. Saturday is the biggest game of the season so far because of the situation we’re in, so we’re going to have a robust week’s training to make sure that any thought of coasting is taken out as it’s totally different opposition this week.

“Devonport are a very tidy side at home and have only lost once. Although we beat them comfortably back in November (66-15), that counts for nothing, we know we can’t read into that. We need to be prepared for the job and make sure that we execute our plan to the best of our ability.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Sandercock, Jacob, Edwards, Westren, Kneebone, Coles, Mulberry; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, Knight, J Duke, Clarke, L Duke (captain), Rowley

Replacements: Jenkins, Lightfoot, Collings

Tries: Thomas, Bentham 2, Jacob 2, Kneebone 3, Edwards 2, Westren, Mulberry, Rowley, Collings

Convs: Coles 10

Pens: N/A

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Reuben Edwards/Greg Thomas