National League Three South West

Bournemouth 27

Cornish All Blacks 6

THE?Cornish All Blacks wretched away form continued as they lost 6-27 to mid-table Bournemouth at Chapel Gate last Saturday.

A poor first-half performance proved to be their undoing as the Dorset-based club went into the break 24-6 up thanks to three converted tries.

Although Jimmy Tucker’s side kept the scoreline respectable in the second-half, the Polson-based club’s 19-month wait for a victory on the road goes on.

As often has been the case so far this term, the All Blacks were guilty of some poor defending as they let in three tries before the interval.

Grant Hancox converted two early scores before veteran hooker Alan Manning burrowed his way over ,following two Fraser Honey penalties for Launceston.

Scott Chislett was sin-binned before the break but the Cornish All Blacks failed to make the extra man count.

In the second-half, Hancox added a penalty to make it 27-6, before Daniel Cawley was sin-binned, giving the visitors yet another chance to close the gap, but again they failed to do so as the game slowly fizzled out.

Player/coach Ryan Westren was again left disappointed with their latest away perfor­mance, especially after last week’s 18-18 draw with second-placed Old Redcliffians.

Westren said: “In the first-half we just didn’t turn up mentally or physically. We gave them easy points and that’s what makes it even more galling. You can sort of live with it if they play outstanding rugby but when you just gift it to them it really hurts, especially after last week when we played really well.

“It’s a theme with us at the minute. We seem to gift points to the other team by giving away silly penalties and playing to much rugby in stupid positions and it has to stop.

“And then with us we get into really good positions but don’t take our chances. On Saturday we made multiple line breaks but didn’t score which is so disappointing.”

Over the summer, the players embarked on a fitness programme, which has done wonders for a number of the squad. However with another weekend off this Saturday, due to another reserve date, the players have been made to do the hard yards.

Westren added: “Bournemouth were very physical and we failed to front up physically and that’s not really on. They had a really good number eight, and once we gave them a sniff they capitalised on it as you would expect at this level of rugby.

“Tuesday night was a really intense session and we’ve got to hammer the training now until next Saturday when we play Bracknell.

“There have been some home truths issued and we’ve had a chat about it, but we need to go out there and do something about it.

“We can’t rely solely on our home form, we have to pick up some points on the road, even if they are bonus points.”