Saturday, January 19

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 10

St Ives 13

A DEPLETED Cornish All Blacks outfit fell to a second successive defeat as Sam Carter struck a late penalty to give St Ives a 13-10 victory at Polson Bridge and knock the hosts off top spot.

Played in front of another big crowd, the All Blacks were looking to bounce back from their 31-13 defeat at Okehampton but were forced to field an unfamiliar looking side.

Joint head coach, Ryan Westren, scrum-half Adam Collings, Andy Knight and Chae Jenkins were all injured, Brandon Rowley was dropped to the bench, while long-term absentees Will Morton and Marc Williams remained on the sidelines.

That forced a significant reshuffle across the team. In the forwards, Dan Goldsmith and Harry Lightfoot came in for Knight and Rowley while the backs saw lots of players swap around.

Tom Sandercock was given the task of filling Collings’ shoes at nine, which meant that Dan Pearce was recalled at full-back and Reuben Edwards was shifted inside to outside-centre to partner Shaun Crawford in the midfield. His place on the right-wing was taken by debutant Aiden Jacob, who is a forward.

The opening exchanges were physical with both sides not giving an inch, although ‘the Hakes’ dominated possession.

However Launceston are near the top for a reason and took a 20th minute lead through fly-half Glenn Coles after a visiting player was penalised for going off his feet at a ruck.

St Ives came back again and built a strong attack from within their half. Fantastic continuity from forwards and backs saw a well taken try by captain and outside-centre Tom Nicholas.

Rhys Brownfield combined well to release full-back Jack Kessell, who used quick hands to feed left-winger Pete Mabbott, who then offloaded to the supporting Nicholas to dive over. Dan Magee took the score to 7-3 with a well-struck conversion from far out.

St Ives had the chance to increase the lead just before half-time and from just inside the opposition’s half Magee fell inches short with his first penalty attempt of the day.

The All Blacks were now playing down the slope and created a couple of good chances, which went abegging, while in defence they worked hard with Lightfoot and Jacob both impressing.

They were rewarded on the hour as after play reached towards the clubhouse corner, good work in the forwards created space for the ball to be worked out to Edwards who went over just to the left of the posts.

With the score so close, any chance to kick at goal would be taken and after St Ives got close to the All Blacks’ line, the home side were penalised and Magee stepped up to level the scores at 10-10.

Mabbott was later yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on but they still managed to keep the majority of the ball.

With minutes to go St Ives were awarded a penalty on the 22-metre line near to the 15-metre line. With Magee off the field, up stepped scrum-half Carter who slotted the penalty and make it 13-10.

The West Cornwall side then managed the last five minutes well, keeping the ball away from the frustrated hosts until the referee acknowledged full-time, and at that point Carter took the call from Nicholas and ran across the field and booted the ball into the stand to end a riveting contest.

Okehampton’s 12-8 win at Lydney now means they’re two points ahead of Launceston at the top with nine games to go, while St Ives moved up to fourth.

Westren was pleased with the improvement but admitted they still have plenty to do.

He said: “We said we needed a response, and we had a rise in intensity defensively compared to the last two weeks.

“Harry Lightfoot was brought back in and he’s probably the best tackler in the club and it showed with his desire to make tackles and that rubbed off on the rest of them.

“We still need to be more dominant in our tackles, but it was a massive step-up. We asked questions to certain individuals during the week as to how they would like to be remembered as a player as I wanted to see how they would step up. It comes down to individual accountability and they showed that, which was good to see.”

While St Ives dominated possession, the All Blacks held firm.

Westren added: “No-one really had the upper hand. The stats we’ve done on the game show that we made double the number of tackles they did and that gives us an indication that we were defending for long periods of time.

“But the slightly annoying thing is that we had a couple of guilt-edged chances that we didn’t take. Yes it was an improved performance, but we had a couple of opportunities and we’ve lost at home. We’re never happy to lose, but at home is particularly frustrating.”

Westren was full of praise for the performances of Lightfoot and Jacob.

He said: “We’ve given ourselves a much better squad depth. It was Aiden’s first game and he’s not a winger by trade, but he came in and did everything we asked of him and more. Harry gave us that energy and he tackled really well. They both stood up really well.”

A trip to third-bottom Teignmouth is next on the horizon on Saturday, and Westren knows they’ll be up for it.

He said: “They’re one of those teams that are stronger at home and they’re fighting for their lives.

“Last year up there we had to turn around a deficit in the second-half, so we know that going there we can’t read too much into the home game. We’re both fighting for things at different ends of the table and that makes them dangerous.”

Westren is confident that Andy Knight will be fit, while a number of players will be assessed during the course of the week.

Cornish All Blacks —

Pearce, Jacob, Edwards, Crawford, Kneebone, Coles, Sandercock; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, J Duke, Goldsmith, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain), Clarke

Replacements: Hawken, Rowley, Tharme

Tries: Edwards

Convs: Coles

Pens: Coles

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Reuben Edwards