Saturday, November 3

Tribute South West One (West)

Cullompton 8

Cornish All Blacks 29

TWO tries in each half enabled the Cornish All Blacks to make it five away wins in a row to start the season as they beat Cullompton 29-8 on Saturday.

Launceston defended manfully to go into half-time with a 12-8 lead before second-half tries from Dan Pearce and Brandon Rowley ensured the leaders made the trip home in good spirits and with a six-point lead at the top of the table.

After scoring 120 points in beating Bridgwater & Albion and Hornets, the coaching staff made two changes for the trip to East Devon as Sam Snell came into the side at loosehead-prop in place of the rested Rikki Bentham while Tom Sandercock was recalled at inside-centre in place of Shaun Crawford, who was on the bench.

The All Blacks won the toss and chose to play into a stiff wind in the first-half, meaning they knew that they would have to put their bodies on the line and that’s what they did as the hosts, whose injury problems are finally starting to subside, spent almost the entire half camped in the Cornishmen’s 22.

However, they had just one try for their efforts, which came on 11 minutes. Torin Clarke did well to steal a Cully lineout five-metres out but the hosts were quick to get the ball back. After a series of pick and gos, former Bude prop Gareth Chambers-Walker crashed his way over. Josh Luxon missed the conversion.

With so much territory, the Red and Blacks would have been disappointed not to make their dominance count and the Launceston riposte was brilliant when it came before the half-hour mark.

Snell grabbed the ball inside their own 22 and went on a 40-metre run before offloading to the supporting Clarke. Clarke ran a further 10/15 metres before giving the ball to Martin Kneebone on the left-wing, who ran a similar distance before passing to Snell some five metres out for a brilliant team try. Coles converted for a 7-5 lead.

Cullompton went back in front through Luxon’s penalty after an All Black was penalised for tackling without the ball.

The game was mainly played in the forwards although visiting full-back Reuben Edwards was forced off for the remainder of the game. He was replaced by Shaun Crawford which meant a reshuffle in the backline.

Launceston’s try-scoring this season has been superb and player/coach Ryan Westren was next on the scoresheet before half-time.

A ten-metre scrum saw number eight Brandon Rowley collect the ball at the base, and offload to Westren, who dived over from a few metres out.

Although Coles missed the kick, the visitors had ground out a four-point lead at the interval.

With the wind in their favour, the All Blacks would have been confident of extending their advantage.

They did so by three points when Coles slotted a 30-metre penalty after a home player was penalised for a deliberate knock-on, although the whole ground was left bemused by the decision from the officials not to sin-bin him.

The All Blacks were dominating territory and added their third try through Dan Pearce.

A series of penalties close to the line went unrewarded before they chose to go for a scrum.

The ball was played out by scrum-half Adam Collings to Pearce, although the pass was very low. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to catch it, the winger, who was about ten metres out, had the nous to kick it through and use his extreme pace to jump on the ball over the line.

Coles went off injured after a heavy collision. The All Blacks needed a fourth try to secure a bonus point they did so with a couple of minutes remaining.

From a five-metre scrum, Rowley showed remarkable strength to score despite the attention of three Cullompton defenders.

Pearce took over kicking duties from Coles and added the extras.

The rest of the game was seen out with ease and Launceston’s mood was made even better by the news that their lead had been extended to six points after local rivals Okehampton were defeated at St Ives.

Skipper Lloyd Duke admitted that it was one of those games where they had to grind it out.

He said: “We were fairly happy to be ahead at half-time especially in those conditions and after being under so much pressure. We spent about 35 minutes in our own half.

“Overall we’ve got to be really happy. People might think that we should have beaten them by more, but Cullompton have had some serious injury problems and they’re coming back now. The team we played on Saturday wasn’t too dissimilar to last year when they finished fifth. I think their league position isn’t a fair reflection of the team that played on Saturday.

“The weather also had a massive effect and it’s not a great place to go, but we’re just happy to come away with the five points.”

Duke was quick to praise the efforts of Sam Snell and Andy Knight, two men who haven’t played a huge amount of rugby this term.

He said: “Sam Snell was really good. He came into a position which he’s very inexperienced in at this level. He did well in the scrum and in open play so I thought he turned up really well. He’s got a great work-rate.

“It was also Andy Knight’s first 80 minutes of the season. He made a big impact and put in some very heavy tackles.”

On Saturday the All Blacks start their Tribute Cornwall Cup campaign at the last eight stage when they face league rivals St Ives at Alexandra Road.

The Polson Bridge club won a ten-try thriller in West Cornwall at the back end of September and Duke believes Saturday was excellent preparation.

He said: “For us, the conditions were a good learning curve ahead of Saturday. At St Ives we’ll have to deal with with a bad wind again so it was a good game ahead of that. We learnt some lessons which we can put into place for Saturday.

“Our backline shone in the league encounter but looking to where we are now in the year, our forwards will need to be on their game as that will have a big say on who will come out on top.

“It should be a really good Cornish derby and they’ll be really confident after beating Okehampton on Saturday, which means we’re now six points clear.”

Duke is stressing the importance of a good cup run as they look for a league and cup double.

He said: “The competition is something we’ve talked about. Possibly for us it was a new thing last year and perhaps we didn’t understand the importance of it to the other teams who’ve been it for years.

“Last year Wadebridge probably upped their game and St Ives are the current holders and will do the same. Also because we beat them five or six weeks ago, they’ve got a score to settle.”

Kick-off at St Ives is at 2pm.

Cornish All Blacks —

Edwards, Pearce, Westren, Sandercock, Kneebone, Coles, Collings; Snell, Bulut, Jenkins, Williams, Knight, Clarke, L Duke (captain), Rowley

Replacements: J Duke, Bartlett, Crawford

Tries: Snell, Westren, Pearce, Rowley

Convs: Coles 2, Pearce

Pens: Coles

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Sam Snell