Saturday, October 19

South West Premier

Cornish All Blacks 22

THE Cornish All Blacks earned the derby bragging rights on Saturday evening as they edged past Okehampton 22-17 at Polson Bridge.

Launceston were looking to build on their first win of the season, a superb 28-16 victory at Newbury Blues seven days earlier, and put in a dominant first-half performance to lead 19-7, thanks to tries from Brandon Rowley, Reuben Edwards and Harry Lightfoot.

In complete contrast to the opening 40, Okehampton shifted through the gears and camped the hosts in their own half for long spells, but a Dan Pearce penalty either side of two unconverted tries from hooker Tom White, ensured the majority of the large crowd went home happy.

With backs Glenn Coles, Shaun Crawford and Louis Ogilvie all either unavailable or injured, joint head coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren recalled Alfie Lang, Tom Sandercock and Pearce to the Launceston starting 15, with Pearce asked to take over kicking duties from Coles.

Oke made the short trip down the A30 missing the influential centre partnership of Bevon Armitage and Rhys Palmer, which meant a major reshuffle in the backline, including former Polson favourite Richard Friend shifting from full-back to inside-centre.

The opening exchanges were fairly even although the flying Pearce was denied a certain try by a fine tackle from full-back Dan Fogerty.

Launceston had the majority of possession inside the opening 15 minutes and scored seconds later as the home side’s pack proved too strong from a five-metre scrum, which allowed number eight Rowley to dot the ball down over the line.

On the rare occasion Okehampton did get into the All Blacks’ half, it nearly cost them as winger Martin Kneebone went on a superb, jinking run down the left-hand touchline, and was only stopped by a fine tackle some ten metres out.

Okehampton were uncharacteristically flat and the Cornishmen extended their lead on 23 minutes.

A penalty was kicked into the corner and after the lineout was won by Lloyd Duke, Brandon Rowley took the ball and was tackled five metres out.

After receiving a pass from scrum-half Dom Mulberry, stand-in fly-half Edwards picked up the ball eight metres out, feigned to go right before running back around to the left and working his way through some poor tackling to score.

Pearce kicked the extras to make it 12-0.

The next ten minutes saw Launceston continue to take charge, although they had to wait until six minutes before the break to grab a third try.

An Okehampton scrum on their own ten-metre line squirted out at the side, allowing blindside-flanker Lightfoot to run 40 metres and score his first try of the season, albeit he was helped by some shoddy tackling. Pearce notched a wonderful kick from the touchline to make it 19-0.

The Maroon and Ambers did reduce the half-time lead to 12 with a score from the final play.

A penalty was kicked into the scoreboard corner, and from the resulting lineout, a driving maul was set up and openside-flanker Dean Abrams was bundled over the line. Friend had no trouble landing the conversion.

The second-half was almost a carbon copy of the first, but this time with Okehampton dominating possession as they attacked the clubhouse side.

A kick in behind the Launceston try line was touched down by Westren to prevent a certain score, and from the resultant five-metre scrum, former Polson Bridge prop Rob Dugard was adjudged to have been held up by referee Will Gilder.

Oke continued to bang down the door but to no avail as combination of knock-ons and superb home defending repelled them.

But the Devon club’s second try was coming and they grabbed it on the hour as the ball was worked down the right before being spread wide for White to add the simplest of tries. Friend surprisingly couldn’t kick the conversion, leaving them seven points behind.

The next few minutes saw the game start to open up a bit. Launceston were awarded a penalty in the 67th minute some 40 metres out, but crucially dead in front of the posts. Pearce kept his cool to bang it over and extend their lead to ten (22-12).

White added a second try with five minutes to go, as he was again on the overlap on the left-hand side. Friend couldn’t kick the all-important conversion, but a tense final five minutes were in store.

Launceston gained possession and were eventually awarded a perfectly kickable penalty, which would have put them eight in front and deny Okehampton a losing bonus point. But feeling that they were so far away from their own try line and knowing that a fourth try would secure them a try bonus point, they decided to go for a scrum, which led to nothing.

However despite Okehampton getting back down towards the home 22, they were penalised at the breakdown for holding on. With time up, replacement Ben Hawke eventually kicked the ball into touch to secure a second successive victory and move up to fourth bottom ahead of Saturday’s difficult trip to Weston-super-Mare.

Westren, who was celebrating his 300th appearance for the club, was delighted with Launceston’s ability to keep calm.

He said: “After winning last week and coming back for a local derby, we said before we need to stick to our processes and base ourselves around that, and not get carried away with the day, as that’s exactly what Okehampton wanted.

“Obviously emotion plays a part but we made sure our week’s preparation was focused on skill levels, tactics and what we thought they’d bring.

“Come game day when you’re in the mix of it, there is an emotional element to it, but I thought we handled that really well.”

The All Blacks dominated the first-half, which gave them enough of a buffer.

Westren said: “We’ve started well in the last couple of games and us getting off to a good start was key as it took one of their big strengths out of the way early, as opposed to them getting a foothold and using that to their advantage.

“In the first-half our carrying stats were massive and in the first-half we were only made to make 18 tackles, which is ridiculous as opposed to 96 in the second which goes a fair way to show the importance of possession.

“But what that [96 tackles] does do is go to show how far our defence has come on in the last month or so.”

After three straight defeats against Okehampton, Westren admitted that the win was all that matters, although he felt they made it harder than it needed to be.

He said: “In a game like that, it’s only the result that really matters, but there were elements to it which were really good. We dominated the first-half and then dealt with their threats in the second-half for the most part.

“I thought Richard Bolt moving from fly-half to scrum-half transformed them and gave them a bit more direction and brought them into the game.

“It was disappointing to concede that try right before half-time as 19-0 was a far steeper climb in their heads. It gave them a boost as opposed to going in really on the ropes, that’s an area we can tighten up on.

“We need to make sure we’re whiter than white with our discipline at crucial stages of the game.”

Over a third of the starting 15 on Saturday are under 23, and Westren was quick to praise them.

He said: “All three try scorers have been involved in the last couple of years. Harry Lightfoot’s added a different element to his game. He’s always been great defensively but is now starting to add effective carries as well.

“Reuben [Edwards] is a real asset to us. We ask him to play multiple positions and he comes up trumps the majority of the time. Sometimes being asked to move around all the time can affect your form, but it doesn’t seem to with him.

Torin has been very good in the last three weeks, he’s really come to the fore and there’s no getting away from Brandon Rowley at the moment. He made 16 carries and given us that dimension which we lacked in the first few games.”

Two wins in a row has moved them above Brixham, Bracknell and Newbury in the league standings, ahead of their trip to the Recreation Ground on Saturday to tackle Weston-super-Mare,

The second-placed Seasiders have lost just twice in seven outings and are unbeaten in Somerset this term, including a 63-7 hammering of Exmouth in their last home fixture.

Westren is concentrating on what his own side can do.

He said: “We know that away games against the top teams are going to be tough, but we go there a lot more confident than we would have done a month ago.

“Over the last few weeks we’ve shown we can more than compete, we should have three wins from three in the bank from this block of games, so we’ll go there in good form.

“We know they’re a good side so we need to control what we can control, make sure we get our preparation spot on and get our performance right, which often leads to a good result.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Lang, Pearce, Sandercock, Westren, Kneebone, Edwards, Mulberry; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, Goldsmith, Clarke, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain), Rowley.

Replacements: Cinnamond, Carpenter, Hawke.

Tries: Rowley, Edwards, Lightfoot.

Convs: Pearce 2.

Pens: Pearce.

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Torin Clarke.