National League Three South West

Cornish?All Blacks 17

Brixham 18

THE Cornish All Blacks are now seven points from safety with just three games to go in their fight for survival after Brixham scored an injury-time try to win 18-17 in a thriller at Polson Bridge.

The All Blacks led 12-8 at the break thanks to tries from Martin Kneebone and skipper Lloyd Duke but in the end were left heartbroken as Tom Goodman converted Ben Lovell’s try in the ninth minute of stoppage time.

The All Blacks started well with full-back Martin Kneebone scoring the opening first try after just five minutes.

Kneebone’s score seemed to spark the Devon side into life as they tested the home side’s defence by camping out close to the try line.

Their advantage was bolstered with the sin-binning of All Blacks’ hooker, Fred Bulut and they eventually got on the scoreboard through a Ben Lovell penalty.

The Cornish All Blacks had a couple of chances to score but the ball was turned over by Brixham. A spell of good play for Brixham followed, but ultimately to no avail.

As the half-time whistle approached both teams traded tries.

Firstly Brixham winger Elliot Bryers raced away to give them an 8-7 lead before skipper Lloyd Duke dodged a number of tackles to produce one of the All Blacks’ tries of the season and give them a four-point cushion at the break.

The second 40 was as nip and tuck as the first but Brixham closed the gap to just a point when Lovell kicked a penalty after scrum-half Sam Stevens became the second home player to spend ten minutes off the field.

With ten minutes to go, a try for the All Blacks would make all the difference, but they conceded a penalty. Brixham’s Tom Goodman took the kick from just in front of the halfway line, but missed.

Then 78 minutes in Chris McDonald scored a try for the home side, leading to many players jumping for joy. However, the conversion was missed.

Extra-time was nailbiting for all concerned. Referee Ben Chadwick awarded a penalty to Brixham. Play was just a few feet from the try line, then Lovell found a gap to go over for a try. One point behind, there was silence around the ground, and Goodman’s conversion was slotted through the posts, winning the game for Brixham in the 89th minute and more importantly keeping the All Blacks’ seven points from safety instead of four.

After the game head of rugby, Jimmy Tucker, was in a philosophical mood, saying: "Sport can be very cruel. The rules of the game are if the ball is still in play, it carries on. If there’s a penalty conceded, that doesn’t end the game. The fact that it was a long second-half is just how the game materialised.

"We only needed them to knock on. I was aware that we needed to convert our last try, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Six points up, we knew we had to score a converted try. We’ve got to give Brixham credit for doing that. They were fit and they had a good number eight. Most teams would not have scored a converted try to win the game. It was through no lack of effort from our guys. Our boys are hurting and like I said, sport can be pretty cruel."

Despite the setback, Tucker felt there was still a chance the Cornish side could escape the clutches of relegation although realistically they have to win all of their remaining matches and hope for intervention from elsewhere.

Tucker added: "A lot depends on what other the other scores are. We’ve got three matches left; we’ve got to win all three. We played good enough in both the forwards and backs.

“Ryan Westren in midfield distributed well. But unfortunately we just didn’t get more than seven points ahead. Hopefully the boys will just have a few beers tonight and raise their spirits and look forward to what is a massive match next week against Lydney. It’d be great if we could have as many supporters up there next week as possible.”

Cornish All Blacks

Kneebone, Edwards, Westren, Sandercock, Dawe, Honey, Stevens, Bentham (Thomas 41), Bulut, Thomas (Knight 27), Williams (Crabb 58), Duke J, Rowley, Duke L, McDonald

Tries: Kneebone (5), Duke L (41), McDonald (78)

Conv: Honey (43)

Pen: N/A

Brixham

Goodman, Bryers, Koteczky, Barnes, Roberts (Green 70), Lovell B, Green (Vatuloka 60), Connor, Cane, Morris (Sexton 24, Morris 70), Thomas A, Onsando (Puleston 10, Onsando 16) Watson (Puleston 24), Lovell J, Thomas S

Tries: Bryers (32), Lovell B (89)

Conv: Goodman (89)

Pens: Lovell B (11) (58)

Attendance: 575

Referee: Ben Chadwick

Man of the match: Fraser Honey (Cornish All Blacks)