AN EXPERIMENTAL Cornish All Blacks side fell to a 36-18 defeat against a Cornwall Development XV at Polson Bridge last Saturday.

With no league fixture, Jimmy Tucker and his coaching staff agreed to take on a squad full of players who are looking to push their way into the full Cornwall squad for the County Championship campaign, which is scheduled for later in the season.

Amongst the players in the Cornwall team were Bude skipper Joe Wilson, who lined up at number eight.

The All Blacks, by contrast, used it as a chance to rest skipper Lloyd Duke, the in-form Ryan Westren and a number of others, as well as giving opportunities to those coming back from injury or who have been impressing in the second team.

Dan Pearce kicked the All Blacks in front early on but that was as good as it got for the rest of the half as the impressive Cornwall Development XV ran in four first-half tries and a penalty to lead 31-6.

To the home side’s credit, they played much better in the second-half and were rewarded with tries from Brandon Rowley and prop Nick Hocking.

In the end the visitors ran out comfortable 36-18 winners, which included tries from Wilson, Will Morton (2) and Lewis Wells, but Duke, who watched from the sidelines, was pleased.

He said: “The game was organised from our point of view to give a run-out to some of the fringe players and those who are returning from injury.

“We used a lot of players and they rotated on and off quite a lot but it was good.

“Some areas went pretty well. Greg Thomas returned from injury at prop and so did Rikki Bentham after a couple of weeks out. They’re both very good props and the scrum looked really good, which is a big positive. We’ve struggled in that area in the last few games so hopefully having them back will help solve that problem.”

Duke was also pleased with the quality of opposition provided and admitted that they would do well in South West One (West).

He said: “At half-time they were leading 31-6 and it looked like we could be on the end of a really bad scoreline. But to be fair to the boys we did really well in the second-half and actually won it.

“It was good for us to see us without some of the more experienced players and to see some of the regular second-teamers, who the coaching staff don’t get to see play that often, in a competitive fixture.

“We tried to treat it like a league game with the same warm-up and it was good for them to be introduced to the matchday environment. A lot of them are probably going to be needed before the end of the season so it was good to give them a taste of it.

“The game itself was very good. The Cornwall team were full of very talented players and would do very well in our league. If we had a full side out it would have been a very close game.”

Duke also praised the talents of Bude number eight Joe Wilson.

Duke said: “I played at Bude for a year after I finished in the Colts and he was a couple of years younger than me. You could tell he was talented and he looks to have matured in the last two or three years. He scored a good try from a line break and he looked very fit. I thought he was outstanding, while for us I thought Brandon Rowley and Rory Cinnamond were great.

“Over the last month they’ve both played really well and I hope it can continue.”

The All Blacks are back in league action on Saturday (2.30pm) when they entertain promoted Cullompton.

The Devon side have won five and lost five of their ten fixtures so far, and Duke expects a very tough game.

He said: “From what?I know, they’re quite a fit and mobile side and are good across the board. We know that going into every game in this league, that we need to be on our mettle so we’ll treat them as if we’re playing Exeter Uni or Drybrook, who we have on the following two weekends.

“It’s great now that we have a number of players coming back and we have a lot of competition for places.

“We’ve played seven away and three at home now the Matson game has been reversed into an fixture, and with us having five of our next six games at home, we know that we must win them. If we’re going to do anything this season we need to try and win all of them and do something at Drybrook next weekend. We’ve talked about those two games over the last couple of weeks and the boys are ready for it. But we know we need to beat Cullompton first.”