Saturday, April 13

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 37

Lydney 15

THE Cornish All Blacks will take on Old Centralians for the right to play in the Tribute South West Premier next Saturday after easing past Lydney 37-15 in their final league game of the season at Polson Bridge.

Launceston headed into the fixture three points behind leaders Okehampton and needed to gain a maximum five-point haul and hope the Devon club managed one or less to secure the title.

However, despite the Cornishmen earning a comfortable success, Oke did likewise as they ran out 41-7 to be crowned champions and secure promotion to Step Five for the first time in their history, leaving the All Blacks to prepare for a winner takes all showdown against their Gloucestershire opponents, who were the runners-up in Tribute South West One (East).

Joint coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren knew that they would probably face the prospect of the play-off and chose to rest prop Rikki Bentham and centre Reuben Edwards in preparation for it.

They also made four further changes from the side that beat Thornbury 34-31 seven days earlier as Jordan Duke, Harry Lightfoot, Dom Mulberry and Aiden Jacob were recalled at the expense of Dan Goldsmith, Torin Clarke, Adam Collings and Will Morton.

There was also a surprise on the bench as flying winger Dan Pearce was brought in from the cold.

The All Blacks have a tendency to start slowly and they fell behind inside five minutes in strange circumstances.

Launceston lock Marc Williams did well to steal a lineout and slapped the ball down to his own team’s side, however the loose ball was picked up by his opposite number Dave Bennet who stormed over from 15 metres. The kick was missed.

However, the All Blacks were on the scoreboard themselves two minutes later as fly-half Glenn Coles slotted a penalty from right in front of the 22, after the Severnsiders outfit were adjudged to be offside.

They then went in front on ten minutes through Westren.

Good hands across the pitch eventually saw right-winger Aiden Jacob run 20 metres before being tackled by the line. However he was smart enough to offload in the process to the onrushing Westren who showed excellent strength to trample over the defender and dot the ball down before being put into touch.

The general pattern of the game was fairly even with both sides in excellent form heading into the match.

However, as often has been the case in recent weeks, the All Blacks powerful pack was proving to be the difference.

On the half hour they grabbed their second try when Andy Knight was driven over from a maul from close-range following a five-metre scrum.

The third Launceston try before the break was a brilliant team effort.

Winger Martin Kneebone picked the ball up deep in his own half and beat two men before passing to full-back Tom Sandercock. Sandercock ran about ten metres before giving the ball to Crawford who offloaded immediately to replacement Clarke, who was on for skipper Lloyd Duke after he suffered a back spasm. Clarke made another 20 metres before committing the last defender to send Crawford away to the score to the left of the posts.

Coles missed his third successive conversion meaning Lydney were in with a chance at 18-5 down.

The Severnsiders had won their previous five games to move into mid-table and they grabbed a second try of their own early in the second-half, as outside-centre Henry Sleeman exploited some space after the ball was worked out to him following good work from the forwards.

Lydney were looking the more dangerous before they pressed the self-destruction button.

As they looked to utilise their backs once more, the eagle-eyed Clarke swooped in to steal a pass and run from just after halfway for the easiest of finishes.

Coles returned to his normal ways by notching the extras to make it 25-10.

The Cornishmen were hoping for a comfortable stroll to the final whistle but were pegged back once again on 62 minutes as Bennet grabbed his second of the afternoon from a driving maul.

However Launceston grabbed two further tries before the end. On 70 minutes a driving maul was set up from a lineout and ended with replacment Chae Jenkins taking the credit. Then on 76 minutes, Pearce, who came on at full-back, showed his electrifying speed to beat the first tackler and play in Kneebone for the easiest of finishes.

However, once the full-time whistle was blown, stadium announcer Bob Wyatt let those who already hadn’t been told, that Okehampton had won and secured promotion, meaning the Cornishmen will take on Old Centralians at Polson Bridge (3pm) by virtue of the fact that they had scored more points (106 to 101).

Player/coach Ryan Westren felt his side were back to their old self.

He said: “The performance on Saturday was the most complete we’ve been this side of Christmas. Obviously there are still things for us to improve on but it was a big step up from our last two fixtures and hopefully that’ll give us some momentum heading into two weeks of preparation ahead of the play-off game.

“We know we need to work on our defending. We worked on training and it paid dividends on Saturday.

“Everyone that played did really well and its created some selection headaches which weren’t there this time last week which is a great thing. Come next week we want to be able to pick from a full squad, so that competition keeps us honest.

“However I thought Andy Knight was really really good, especially as he’s been on the fringes a bit recently. He showed his full potential!”

Okehampton and the Cornish All Blacks have been in a season-long battle for the championship, but Westren admits he wasn’t expecting a helping hand from the Services.

He said: “If it had happened it’d have been good but the damage had already been done after a couple of slip-ups earlier in the season. So fair play to Okehampton for closing out the title without slipping up.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Sandercock, Jacob, Crawford, Westren, Kneebone, Coles, Mulberry; Knight, Bulut, Thomas, J Duke, Williams, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain), Rowley

Replacements: Jenkins, Clarke, Pearce

Tries: Westren, Knight, Crawford, Clarke, Jenkins, Kneebone

Convs: Coles 2

Pens: Coles

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Andy Knight