THE Cornish All Blacks were nearly made to pay for a number of missed chances as they hung on to beat Bridgwater & Albion at Polson Bridge.

Following their 20-0 defeat at Bideford, Jimmy Tucker and his coaching staff were forced into a number of changes, with most of them enforced.

Second-team prop Nick Hocking was given a late call-up in place of Rikki Bentham who was out with a bad back after Andy Knight was called into work while Brandon Rowley was brought in at flanker for Chris Macdonald who was also injured.

In the backs, Glenn Coles was given his first start for the club in place of the concussed Greg Loydall at fly-half while Tom Sandercock came in at scrum-half for Shaun Crawford who was shunted out to inside-centre to replace Ben Stansfield.

David Parish and Dom Mulberry were brought into the matchday 18.

Despite the number of players missing or playing together for the first time, the All Blacks got off to a blazing start, with Brandon Rowley scoring a converted try within the first minute of the game.

It was an immediate wake up call for Bridgwater, who pushed their way down to the Launceston try line, testing the opponents’ defence. This led to full-back Will Munro to go over for a try, which was easily converted by Kyran Devitt.

A couple of Bridgwater infringements resulted in a yellow card for Jay Owens, and the All Blacks capitalised on this, with a second converted try for the home side, scored by the prolific Ryan Westren.

Bridgwater added another three points to the board with a penalty, kicked by Devitt.

There were a number of missed opportunities for the Cornish All Blacks leading into half-time, but at the whistle they led 14-10.

It took until the 55th minute for the All Blacks to score their third try, when second-row Jake Crabb crashed over in the corner for his first All Blacks try at home.

The Somerset side kept pushing forward, and were camped out on the All Blacks’ try line for a few minutes. No try was forthcoming, but referee Ben Chadwick awarded a penalty, which was slotted rough the posts by Devitt, closing the points deficit. The visitors now only needed a converted try to take the lead.

A couple of bad decisions were made by the Cornish All Blacks — they gave away advantage with two minutes to go. The side desperately needed to keep Bridgwater out, but the visitors knew they could steal the victory.

The Cornish All Blacks survived a torrid nine minutes of injury-time, their defence tested to the limit. At the line, Bridgwater looked certain to score, but the ball was knocked on just a couple of metres from the lines and the game was over.

Head of rugby, Jimmy Tucker, said: "We did make hard work of it but we’ve been in this position enough times and I’m quite pleased for the boys to be happy with their afternoon’s work. If we’re critical, we didn’t score enough in the first-half. We weren’t clinical enough — thankfully that didn’t come around and bite us in the backside.

"In the last two minutes we could have easily conceded a score and lost the game. Deep down the desire to win was evident, and we needed a win."

Skipper Lloyd Duke, echoed Tucker’s comments but was just delighted to get the points.

He said: “It looks like we got away with it and we did at the end but from watching the game back we had three or four clear-cut opportunities in the first-half and should have been out of sight.

“I don’t think it would have been unrealistic to have been 20 points ahead at half-time but in the second-half Bridgwater played well but ultimately we deserved to win. However, we know that we need to be more accurate.”

The All Blacks’ profligacy nearly came back to haunt them late on as the visitors inexcusably failed to hold on to a routine pass which would have seen them score, and Duke admitted that it would have been a crushing way to lose.

He said: “Although they would have had to kick it, if we had lost that game after that first-half it would have been a very tough pill to swallow. Looking back, we know we weren’t clinical enough but a win is a win although it’s very frustrating that we didn’t manage to get a bonus point.”

Duke also went on to praise a number of players who aren’t regular starters or are in their infancy of their first team careers.

He said: “What makes the win better is that we were missing a lot of players. For the new boys, it’s great for them to back up the belief we have in them and it shows we’ve got strength in depth now and that everyone who comes in can go out there and do a job.

“It has now put pressure on the ones who didn’t play and they now know that they’ll have to work extremely hard to get back in and it’s going to lift the standards in training, which is exactly what we want.

“I thought our front row did exceptionally well and they should be very proud of their efforts. Nick Hocking normally plays in the seconds but we asked him to put in 60 minutes and make sure that he was solid in the scrum and that’s exactly what he delivered. I thought Rory Cinnamond was absolutely exceptional. He was quite quiet for the first 20 minutes but for the rest of the game he was brilliant while Ben Collins also did well when he came on and so did Jordan (Duke) with his lineouts. I think they only got their fingertips to one our lineouts all afternoon.”

The All Blacks are back on the road up towards Bristol yet again this Saturday when they travel to bottom of the table Clevedon.

However, they’ve lost their last three away from home and Duke knows it’s vital they go into their break from league action with a win.

He said: “We know it’s very important that we win on Saturday. It’s a monkey that is starting to get on our backs. We have to go there and show the rest of the league that Launceston can win away from home, otherwise we may lose some confidence. However, if we do get the victory it’ll show them that we’re right in the mix for the rest of the season. It’s definitely a pretty important game for us.”