Saturday, September 14

South West Premier

Cornish All Blacks 24

Exmouth 76

WINGER Matt Ryan scored four tries in the opening 15 minutes as Exmouth put a woeful Cornish All Blacks to the sword at a sunny Polson Bridge.

The Cockles led 49-17 at half-time with fly-half George Meadows slotting his first seven conversions, and although Reuben Edwards grabbed his second try for the hosts, Exmouth added a further five after the break to round off the most humiliating of afternoon’s for Launceston.

Joint coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren made four changes from the side that were beaten 54-12 at Exeter University in their league opener seven days earlier, including three in the pack as Levent Bulut, Rory Cinnamond and Chris Macdonald were drafted in for Jordan Duke, Greg Thomas and the injured Dan Goldsmith.

In the backs, fly-half Glenn Coles was fit to return in place of centre Alfie Lang, which meant Westren switched back to his favoured role in the midfield.

Despite not starting the game, Lang was brought on inside a minute as full-back Eddie McGinley injured himself which prompted a reshuffle as outside centre Edwards moved to the right-wing with Dan Pearce dropping into McGinley’s position.

What transpired next will have left the home coaches in a state of shock as Exmouth cut through the hosts at will, as Ryan notched a five-minute hat-trick giving them a 21-0 lead inside nine minutes as he used his blistering pace to scythe through some massive gaps and poor one-on-one tackling.

On the rare occasions the hosts did get the ball they looked threatening themselves, and got on the scoreboard on 13 minutes as some quick hands in the backs allowed Pearce to release a brilliant off-load in the tackle to Edwards on the touchline to evade his opposite number.

Coles converted to make it 21-7.

Every time the visitors picked up the ball they looked threatening and they scored within 90 seconds of the restart, Ryan adding his fourth.

At 28-7 down the hosts had to score the next try to have any chance but by the time Martin Kneebone added their second on 33 minutes, the visitors had scored twice more, through giant centre Nick Headley who had the freedom of Polson Bridge to run through completely unopposed.

Kneebone’s try came as a result of multiple phases close to the left-hand corner which ended in a short pass from prop Rikki Bentham to Kneebone on the overlap. But Exmouth added a seventh on 36 minutes through winger Lewis Geran.

The CABs had the final say before the break as good work in the forwards ended with number eight Gary Gynn burrowing his way over. Coles kicked the conversion.

At 49-17 down at half-time the All Blacks were out of the game but needed to score a further try to ensure a losing bonus point.

Exmouth needed less than two minutes to set the wheels in motion for another dominant 40 minutes as scrum-half James Bath touched down following a dropped restart.

Flanker Dan Armstrong added a ninth ten minutes later from well over 40 metres, which was missed by Meadows, the first time he had done so all day.

Launceston’s fourth try came in near identical fashion to the first on 56 minutes as Pearce used his searing pace to penetrate the defence before offloading to Edwards to dot down in front of the new electronic scoreboard.

The next 17 minutes were devoid of any real try-scoring opportunities until Exmouth grabbed their final two in the last seven minutes.

A beautiful kick behind the defence allowed Geran all the time in the world to run in for his second before Ryan completed a double hat-trick by twisting out of a tackle to score.

Meadows missed the last two kicks but the damage was done a long time ago.

Life doesn’t get any easier for the Cornishmen this Saturday (3pm) as they head to Ivybridge.

Westren pulled no punches in his assessment.

He said: “Defensively we were terrible. Again we showed that we looked like scoring tries when we had the ball but defensively we just weren’t at the races at all. If teams are going to score tries against us we’ve got to make sure that they have to work hard for it. I said last week about making sure the Exeter Uni result was an anomaly but that’s gone out of the window and there’s clearly a substantial step up, which we’ve got to get to grips with sharpish.

“For the first couple of minutes we started brightly but they then scored and we just imploded. Both coaching teams weren’t happy with their defence. Scoring four tries shows we can get points but we need to make sure we don’t concede, as at the minute we’re doing that far too easily.”

Conceding four tries in just 11 minutes inside the opening quarter of an hour meant the game was almost over before it started.

Westren said: “In both games so far we’ve got on the wrong side of the score early and almost been at their mercy. Whether that comes down to one-on-one tackling, it all needs to be dissected. It wasn’t through a lack of effort or anything like that but it wasn’t good enough. But that isn’t to take anything away from Exmouth, they were a very good, clinical side who finished fifth last year. They came down here and showed us what the South West Premier is all about.”

Despite the one-sided scoreline, Westren found positives.

He said: “Dan Pearce, Reuben Edwards and Harry Lightfoot all did really well.

“Pearcey showed that he’s getting back to his best. He had a great pre-season and has stepped up massively from last year. He’s been the standout in training and it’s now coming to fruition in games.

“Reuben, like the rest of the team, had a tough outing last week but he was back to his best and Harry Lightfoot is the epitome of what you want, and he’s in the Lloyd Duke mould where he carries and tackles all day.”

With 13 teams in the South West Premier, last weekend was Ivybridge’s turn to have a bye, but if their draw at Exmouth on the opening day is anything to go by, Launceston have their work cut out on Saturday at Cross-in-Hand.

Westren said: “They drew 17-17 with Exmouth, so going from that we know it’s going to be another tough game. We know that we need to sort our defensive side without the ball.

“The funny thing is, most of the time the ground has been covered but we’ve missed a one-on-one tackle. That comes down to player accountability so we need to make sure we’re in the right mindset.

“They like to throw the ball around a bit and they have a good back-row and some quick backs. But we’ll make sure we’re ready come Saturday afternoon.”

Cornish All Blacks —

McGinley, Pearce, Edwards, Westren, Kneebone, Coles, Mulberry; Bentham, Bulut, Cinnamond, Macdonald, Clarke, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain), Gynn.

Replacements: J Duke, Bottoms, Lang.

Tries: Edwards 2, Kneebone, Gynn.

Convs: Coles 2.

Pens: N/A.

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Dan Pearce.