LAUNCESTON’S joint head coach, Ryan Westren, admits that ‘everyone added to their value’ during their opening pre-season victory over Fullerians at Polson Bridge on Saturday.

With the first league game still more than a fortnight away, Westren and Ian Goldsmith organised with the visitors to play the match in four 20-minute quarters as opposed to the traditional two 40-minute halfs, with 32 Launceston players getting a game.

The match was also played on the river pitch due to ongoing work on the main pitch.

However tries from Tom Sandercock, Lloyd Duke and Martin Kneebone ensured they built up to this weekend’s tough trip to Barnstaple on a winning note.

After surviving an early spell of pressure from the Watford-based club, the All Blacks took the lead following a set-piece.

Duke picked the ball up from the base of the scrum before feeding Westren who was half tackled a couple of yards out for his centre partner Sandercock to bundle over.

Glenn Coles kicked the conversion.

The All Blacks doubled their lead before the first quarter was out as Duke exploited a glaring gap in defence following some nice handling to run in unopposed for his first score of the year.

After 20 minutes, some of the more experienced heads were replaced by the rest of the squad, although no further points were scored as the All Blacks went into the break with a 14-0 cushion.

The more experienced players returned for at least part of the third quarter, where the All Blacks extended their advantage once more as Kneebone touched down in the corner after more than ten phases.

The rest of the game was played out with the visitors tiring, although they did grab a consolation score in the dying stages to make it 19-7 at the final whistle.

Westren was pleased with what he’d seen.

He said: “It was the first hit out and you want to give everyone a game. We spoke to Fullerians about the structure to get the most from it, and it went went well. There were a lot of positives which we can really work on.

“We had to weather a storm in the first ten minutes where they came out really keen and full of energy and held onto possession really well.

“But our positives were defensively. We were very strong defensively considering it felt like we didn’t have much ball.

“That comes down to the will and desire to put our body on the line from the players involved.

“Training has been so intense, we didn’t want to take a backward step and put it up another level. Everyone tried their hardest and gave their all.

“We said we’re still in the learning phase. There were no points on the table, but we were pleased.”

Westren, like some of Launceston’s squad, may never have played on the second team pitch before, and he admitted he found it slightly odd.

He said: “It was a bit strange for me, I’ve never played a game on it before and it was a different kind of atmosphere compared to what we’re used to which is the big pitch and crowd.

“However, we had a really good turnout and that helped make it as normal as possible.”

Playing against a team from the same standard, albeit from a different area of the country as Fullerians play in London North One compared to the Cornishmen’s Tribute South West One (West), Westren believes it will be beneficial for when the real business starts.

He said: “Although both teams were missing a fair few, they were quite similar to a few teams in our league such as North Petherton.

“They were really forward dominant and had a heavy pack, so it was a difficult challenge.

“When we play teams like that, sometimes we have to weather the storm a bit before we then take control.

“Everyone added to their value. Pete Bebbington really shone. He’s quite a quiet lad but he really came of age and hopefully he’ll continue to do that through pre-season. He’s definitely thrust himself into contention but now he has to back that up.

“I also thought Tom Sandercock was really good. He’s had that glint in his eye throughout pre-season. In defence he was as solid as a rock and did all the right things in attack as well.

“I’m looking forward to potentially working up a centre partnership with him which can move us forward.

“But like I said, everyone came out of the game adding to their stock. We couldn’t have asked for more, it was as positive as we could expect from our first game.”

Despite the high praise, Westren wants to see further improvement at Barnstaple on Saturday, a team club who now play in the South West Premier after relegation last term.

He said: “Although we were defensively strong, we didn’t quite get our attack going as we’d quite like to and some players tried a few things which they probably wouldn’t if it wasn’t the first game. We’ll focus on our attacking patterns and shapes this week.”

Looking ahead to Saturday, Westren knows it’s going to be tough but knows they’ll learn a lot.

He said: “We’ve got a few unavailabilities so that determines a bit what we can do.

“As we go through pre-season we want to tape things down.

“With just a matchday squad of 18 we want to go into the Penryn game on the 25th with a squad of maybe 20 to 21, but they’re bringing up two sides so that everyone gets a game.

“We’ll take a squad of probably 25/26 to Barnstaple which will be played as a normal game. Last week everyone had a run-out.

“They’re a league higher and we’re expecting a tough test. For some players this might be the highest level of opposition they’ve played.

“Although they came down from National Two (South), they were close to staying up, they’ve kept most of their squad, so we’ll find out more about our players up there. This will tell us more than the Fullerians game.

“The players are going to be put under more pressure. If we make a mistake they are likely to punish us.

“But what I want is for to front up and match them physically. I can handle them being better than us, but what I can’t handle is us not physically fronting up. They shouldn’t be able to beat us physically.”