Saturday, September 8

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 28

Newent 22

CHAE Jenkins scored twice on his first league start as the Cornish All Blacks made it two wins from two to start the season with a 28-22 victory over Newent at Polson Bridge.

The Cornishmen led 28-6 at half-time thanks to debutant Will Morton and a penalty try either side of Jenkins’ double.

The Gloucestershire-based side were the much better side after the break, but despite registering 16 unanswered points, couldn’t find that elusive late converted try to snatch victory.

Coaches Ryan Westren and Ian Goldsmith made three changes from their opening day victory at Lydney bringing Jenkins in at tighthead-prop in place of the injured Greg Thomas while regular prop Andy Knight was brought in to beef up the second-row in place of Ed Dudden who dropped to the bench.

Morton replaced Dan Pearce who was on holiday on the wing.

Jordan Duke took Knight’s place on the bench from last week.

If any of the 496-strong crowd were late in arriving they may have missed the opening try after just two minutes.

After some good work by the forwards, the ball was spread out into the backs and into the hands of full-back Reuben Edwards.

Edwards used his pace to get past his man before passing to Morton who ran in from 30 metres to score with his first competitive touch since joining from Saltash.

Glenn Coles kicked the conversion to make it 7-0.

Newent finished fourth last term and started their season with a convincing 41-0 victory so were always likely to cause problems and they did for the next ten minutes although the All Blacks did well to repel them.

After soaking up the pressure they went down the other end to score on 16 minutes.

After skipper Lloyd Duke won the ball at the back of a lineout on halfway, Duke ran 15 metres before being tackled.

Following some crisp offloading involving Edwards, Westren and Shaun Crawford, Duke received a pass from scrum-half before being tackled a metre out. Jenkins was quickest to the tackle and crashed over. Coles again added the extras.

Newent finally got on the board two minutes later through 30-metre penalty by fly-half Tom Webb.

Despite seeing their advantage cut, the All Blacks were 18 points to the good on 20 minutes as Jenkins scored his second.

After some good play in the Newent 22, Knight went on a barnstorming run which was cut short two metres from the line. Collings then popped the ball off for Jenkins to score his second in quick succession.

Coles made it three from three with the conversions.

The All Blacks had the majority of possession without making it count until some sterling work from number eight Torin Clarke at the lineout laid the foundation for the next score.

From the visitors’ lineout on halfway, Clarke stole the ball before running 20 metres and chipping the ball over the top.

Webb did well to get to the ball first just a couple of metres from his own try line but the home defence swarmed him and pushed him back over for a five-metre scrum.

As was the case for the most part, the home scrum proved too strong, which forced the Newent pack to collapse the scrum and allow referee Bryan Perry to award the penalty try to make it 28-3.

Webb added a penalty on half-time but the All Blacks were in control.

While the first-half was one of the best performances seen at Polson Bridge in a long time, the second 40 was anything but as the visitors piled on the pressure.

They managed their first try seven minutes in as prop Ben Stevens crashed over from close-range after good work from Webb.

Five minutes later it was 28-14 as Webb slotted over a penalty from 20 metres after Crawford tackled his man without the ball.

The next 14 minutes was pretty even although the All Blacks were perhaps fortunate that their decision to go for the lineout at penalties instead of kicking at goal, didn’t prove costly.

On 66 minutes, Webb nailed a brilliant kick from near the halfway line to reduce the arrears to 11 points before replacement flanker George Phelps used a bit of quick thinking to score from a few metres out after they were awarded a penalty.

With eight minutes to go and knowing a converted try would seal the most thrilling of comebacks, the Greens continued to probe away.

After stealing the ball from an All Blacks lineout, they forced the home side to defend for a couple of minutes before Coles won a penalty at the breakdown.

With time up, the All Blacks kicked the penalty into touch and ensured they maintained their perfect record.

Skipper Lloyd Duke admitted that it was a game of two halves.

He said: “The first-half was the best 40 minutes we’ve put together in the last 18 months but we knew that Newent wouldn’t roll over.

“We definitely didn’t play to our potential in the second-half and allowed them to play which we shouldn’t have done.

“But the biggest thing is that we’ve got maximum points.”

Duke was also full of praise for the forwards who again laid the platform and to Jenkins and Morton.

He said: “Again our scrum was really good. That’s two weeks on the trot that we’ve dominated that area. Losing Greg would have been a massive blow for most teams but to see Chae step up the way he did was fantastic.

“It was also really good for Will to get his first try so quickly. Coming to a new club, it’s going to build his confidence.”

On Saturday, the All Blacks make the trip to Somerset to take on North Petherton who lost 39-3 at the weekend, and Duke believes that if the forwards can continue their fine form they should be confident.

He said: “They were pretty strong upfront last year so our scrum will have a big onus on it again.

“But if we give a platform to our backs then they’re more than a match for anyone!”

Kick-off at Beggars Brook is at 3pm.

Cornish All Blacks —

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

Replacements:

J Duke, Dudden, Sandercock

Tries: Morton, Jenkins 2, penalty try

Convs:?Coles 3

Pens: N/A

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Chae Jenkins