Saturday, October 27

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 60

Hornets 36

DAN Pearce scored four tries as the Cornish All Blacks marked their 70th anniversary celebrations with a thrilling 60-36 victory over Hornets at Polson Bridge.

Launceston roared into a 21-0 lead inside ten minutes but were only 24-17 up at the break before six further tries in the second-half eventually saw off their determined visitors from Weston-super-Mare.

Coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren made just two changes from their 60-33 victory at Bridgwater & Albion as Brandon Rowley was recalled in place of George Bone at number eight which meant that Torin Clarke moved to blindside-flanker and skipper Lloyd Duke swapped sides to play at seven.

On the right-wing, Pearce replaced the in-form Will Morton who is out for a number of weeks with a dislocated shoulder suffered in training.

The All Blacks scored after just four minutes in North Somerset but were out of the blocks even faster as Clarke dotted down 60 seconds sooner after a good move eventually allowed him to cross after a big gap opened up towards the left-hand side.

Five minutes later they doubled their lead as a driving maul was stopped close to the line and prop Rikki Bentham burrowed his way over. Again fly-half Glenn Coles converted for a 14-0 lead.

Launceston were looking dangerous every time they got the ball although the third try came in somewhat different circumstances on ten minutes.

With the Hornets’ backs looking to play out wide, the lightning-fast Pearce intercepted a pass and ran in unopposed from 60 metres.

At 21-0 down the visitors looked in big trouble.

However the next half an hour of the game they showed why they are fourth in the table.

They grabbed their first try on 12 minutes as outside-centre Rob Dempsey pierced a gap and passed to Ozzy James who was held up just short. However former Launceston player Steve Pape crashed over from close-range.

The next 14 minutes gave the 579-strong crowd a chance to catch breath before Coles extended their lead to 17 points with a penalty.

Hornets were also looking dangerous in attack and scored twice in five minutes with the first coming on the half hour through number eight Matt Parker from close-range before James scored in the left-hand corner after an excellent move. Winger Charlie Carter converted and it was 24-17.

James thought he’d added a second before the break but referee David Allen adjudged him to have knocked on.

The All Blacks survived until the break in what was a fitting way to mark the occasion.

The second-half started with Hornets on top once more and they were level on 44 minutes.

Pape went on a marauding run from the second-row and was high-tackled a couple of metres from the try line, resulting in full-back Reuben Edwards being sent to the sin-bin.

From the penalty, Parker eventually crashed over following a couple of phases and Carter converted once more to make it all square.

However that lead lasted all of two minutes as some good work by the hosts ended with Pearce being played in to score in the right-hand corner, although many felt it was close as to whether his foot went into touch.

Eight minutes later the All Blacks had a bit of breathing space as they once again scored from a short lineout. This time Rowley was the beneficiary. Coles made an excellent kick from the right to make it 36-24.

Edwards had a moment to forget on 58 minutes and it led to the Hornets’ fifth try.

A long kick towards the scoreboard corner saw Edwards try to run his way out of trouble from close to his line.

However he was tackled and the Hornets were given a penalty.

After being repelled for a minute or so, the ball was played out left towards James who burst past Pearce to score. Carter converted to reduce the deficit to seven.

The game was end to end with both defences creaking and the All Blacks finally gave themselves a strong cushion as they scored twice in the space of a minute.

Edwards redeemed himself by bursting through and was destined to score but was on the end of a high tackle, which resulted in a sin-bin and a penalty try.

Pearce then grabbed his hat-trick almost straight away.

Left-winger Martin Kneebone made a scintillating 50-metre burst from near his own line. And although he was tackled, the ball was eventually played out to Westren who had a two-on-one with Pearce to his outside. He timed his pass to perfection allowing Pearce to speed away to score and make it 48-29.

With 12 minutes to go, the Hornets needed to score next and they did as Parker again used his sheer size and strength to muscle his way over for a hat-trick with six minutes remaining.

However any hopes were all but dashed from Coles’ kick-off as Pearce caught it 20 metres from the line, and ran away to score for his fourth of the afternoon.

Coles’ own excellent performance was rewarded with two minutes to go as the hosts grabbed their ninth try on the left-hand side. Coles missed the conversion but the All Blacks had 60 points for the second consecutive week ahead of Saturday’s trip to Cullompton (2.30pm).

Player/coach Ryan Westren was delighted with his side.

He said: “We’ve taken our attacking game to another level and we’re maturing as a team. We’ve learned as a team that you need to go through your processes to take out teams. In the past, we were a bit guilty of trying too much, but we’re now not trying to rush things.”

Although they’ve conceded a good number of points in the last fortnight, Westren has no worries about his defence.

He said: “The good thing is that natural instinct in attack is hard to coach and the way we’ve been playing means we’ve been slightly susceptible, but no-one is going to moan when we win.

“But we don’t want to be relying on having to score 60 points every week to win so it’s something to be aware of and it’s something we’ll improve. And as the weather gets worse you naturally score less anyway. But we’re lucky that we have a natural skillset to score that potentially others in this league don’t.”

When asked as to why he thinks they’ve scored so many points more this year, Westren believes it’s a number of things.

He said: “We’ve made changes positionally, there’s more competition for places and we’re another year down our development and our youngsters are a year older.

“A microcosm of our whole squad is Reuben Edwards, who’s been exceptional in the first seven or eight weeks.

“He’s had two years of solid rugby but has now developed and is getting his rewards. We’ve also got others who people haven’t seen who have potential to do the same thing.”

With nearly 600 people in attendance, Westren was delighted to see them perform.

He said: “We talked all week that there’ll be lots of ex players there and it would have been disappointing not to have shown them what we’re made of. We’re custodians of the shirt and from my point of view as a coach you have to cherish it. If you don’t perform and show a bit of pride in the shirt then you won’t have it for very long.

“We wanted to show that the current crop have as much pride as the players of the past.”

Launceston have won seven of their eight games and Westren knows that they’ve given themselves a chance.

He said: “To score 120 points against two teams up there is great and we’ve now got an opportunity to put a bit of distance between ourselves and the rest.

“If you would have asked me eight weeks ago would I have taken where we are now, of course I would have. We’re pretty much a third of the way through and we’ve put ourselves in a position to be competitive going forward.

“If you want to be in the mix at the end of the season then you have to be at it for 26 weeks.”

The All Blacks are back on the road this weekend when they make the relatively short journey to struggling Cullompton, although Westren is wary.

He said: “They haven’t had the best of starts but they gave us two very tough games last year and we won’t be taking them lightly.

“We’re four from four on the road and by 5pm on Saturday we hope to have another win in the bag.”

Cornish All Blacks —

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

Replacements: J Duke, Snell, Sandercock

Tries: Clarke, Bentham, Pearce 4, Rowley, penalty try, Coles

Convs: Coles 5

Pens: Coles

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