Saturday, February 17

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 15

CHRIS?SNELL slotted over a 40-metre penalty with the last kick of the game to ensure that Bideford left Polson Bridge with a share of the spoils and ruined skipper Lloyd Duke’s 150th appearance for the club.

The All Blacks went into the fixture with six wins in a row in the league, but were looking to bounce back from their shock 22-13 defeat to Wadebridge Camels in the semi-finals of the Tribute Cornwall Cup.

The Cornishmen made three changes from the defeat at Molesworth Field, bringing in Martin Kneebone at full-back, Jon Dawe at inside-centre and Jake Crabb into the second-row for Dan Goldsmith.

Kneebone’s inclusion meant that Dan Pearce was shifted out to the wing in place of Harry Dawe while Jon Dawe replaced in the injured Tom Sandercock.

The All Blacks put in their worst performance of the season at Wadebridge and in front of a massive crowd of 830 — boosted by the club’s annual ‘Farmers Day’ and the minis and juniors sponsorship of the game — but were quickly under the cosh as the North Devon visitors put together multiple phases in the opening minutes.

Despite their inaccuracies, the All Blacks defended manfully and scored first within the opening 15 minutes.

Some solid work from the forwards after a fine break from Ben Hawke got them to within touching distance of the Bideford line. From a couple of metres out, prop Zac Cinnamond scored for his third try in as many weeks, which was converted by Pearce.

After being well on top in the opening stages, Bideford knew they needed to respond quickly and they did within 60 seconds.

After they kicked off, home scrum-half Shaun Crawford looked to box-kick. However, it was brilliantly charged down by visiting captain Dean Folland, who then collected the ball before drawing in full-back Martin Kneebone and then releasing second-row Jono Mock to run in under the posts. Snell converted and it was 7-7.

Despite not playing their best, the All Blacks looked dangerous, and their second try came from a brilliant strike move.

After Duke had collected a lineout from Fred Bulut, he quickly gave the ball to Crawford, who spotted a brilliant inside run from left-winger Reuben Edwards, who scythed through the Bideford defence to run in from 40-metres and score in the left-hand corner.

The rest of the half was fairly non-eventful although Snell did miss a penalty right on the half-time whistle.

The All Blacks knew that they needed to improve despite the scoreline, but again found themselves doing the majority of the defending.

Duke marked his landmark game with a trip to the sin-bin in the 55th minute for having his hands in a ruck and Bideford took advantage.

From a lineout, a driving maul allowed replacement flanker Jamie Giddy to crash over.

Snell missed the conversion and it was 12-12 with just over 20 minutes to go.

There was a bit of a lull in the action until Duke returned the field.

Pearce missed a very kickable penalty but redeemed himself a couple of minutes later with a straight kick from just in front of the ten-metre line to make it 15-12.

The All Blacks looked to have been winding down the clock well until a moment of madness cost them.

After being given a penalty with 90 seconds to go, they elected to kick the ball into touch. However the lineout was adjudged not to have been straight which allowed Bideford to retain possession.

After a number of phases, the referee awarded a penalty, which was almost 40-metres out.

However, Snell kept his cool to slot it over the posts and secure Bideford a draw.

Duke admitted that it in the end it felt like a defeat but admitted that they needed to improve.

“At the end of the game it was a sinking, almost nothing feeling. We had led all game and to draw in the final minute is tough. What’s harder for us is that it was all our own fault as we let them into the game due to our inaccuracies.

“It was a funny game.?We didn’t play a lot of rugby as we gave up the ball far too easily. In the first-half we defended for about 35 minutes and that came through our own doing.

“Going into half-time it wasn’t a bad place to be. We talked about stepping up in the second-half but again we couldn’t string any phases together and when you’re defending all the time, mistakes happen. It all came through our lack of possession.

“Saying that, I thought our defence was outstanding and they lived off our mistakes. Yes they kept the ball well but our defence was good. Their first try came from a charged down box-kick and it was 7-7 without them really doing anything. But it’s just frustrating as we gave the ball away so easily. It was a marked improvement from the Wadebridge game, especially in defence, but we still kept coughing up possession and it’s becoming a bit of a recurring theme.

“We’ve got to stop giving the ball away so easily and it’s easy to put right, but we know we need to do it quickly.”

Despite the result, Duke was quick to praise the support and was already looking forward to next weekend’s trip to mid-table Bridgwater & Albion, who the All Blacks beat 19-13 at Polson Bridge in November.

He said: “One of the great advantages of Farmers Day is that the clubhouse is still buzzing afterwards. They were there to enjoy themselves and have a good time and it sort of lifts your mood. It’s a nice environment to come into and it helped lift our spirits a bit after what happened at the end of the game.

“We’ve now got a week off which is a bit frustrating after what happened at the end, but there’s nothing we can do about it.

“Bridgwater won’t be an easy place to go — they could and probably should have nicked it at the end down here, although we should have been out of sight by half-time, so we know we need to be on it.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Kneebone, Pearce, Westren, J Dawe, Edwards, Hawke, Crawford; Bentham, Bulut, Z Cinnamond, Williams, Crabb, Rowley, L Duke, Clarke

Replacements: R Cinnamond, McDonald, H Dawe

Tries: Z Cinnamond, Edwards

Convs: Pearce

Pens: Pearce

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match:?Jon Dawe