Saturday, December 7

South West Premier

Camborne 27

Cornish All Blacks 20

LAUNCESTON are now four points from safety in the South West Premier after falling to a 27-20 defeat at Cornish rivals Camborne.

The All Blacks headed down the A30 without key forwards Rikki Bentham and Brandon Rowley due to injury, and found themselves 17-5 down at the break.

A second Tommy-Lee Southworth try extended the Cherry and Whites’ lead to 24-8 and although Dan Pearce kept the visitors in it with a series of penalties, they could only leave the Rec with a bonus point.

Coaches Ian Goldsmith and Ryan Westren were hoping to name an unchanged side from the one that secured a 32-32 draw with Brixham a fortnight earlier, but Bentham and Rowley were unable to take their usual positions at prop and number eight respectively, which led to a bit of a movearound.

Bentham’s spot was taken by Rhys Carpenter while Rory Cinnamond, stated to start at prop, was switched to blindside-flanker with Harry Lightfoot shifting across to openside-flanker and skipper Lloyd Duke moving from seven to the base of the scrum.

Greg Thomas was called up from the bench to start in the front-row with Alex Bartlett taking his spot on the bench.

Camborne went into the game with six wins to their name from ten outings and had lost just once at home.

Liam Chapple’s side started the brighter and took the lead on 13 minutes.

A clearing kick was fielded by full-back Jake Champion close to his own ten-metre line before he made a superb break was which was stopped by his opposite number, Reuben Edwards. However from the recycled ball, Camborne kept it in hands and after a couple of phases, Champion broke through to score. Fly-half Rhys Brownfield notched the extras.

The visitors were more than holding their own and replied with a try of their own ten minutes later. Knowing they had a penalty advantage, fly-half Glenn Coles put through a grubber kick which was touched down by Duke. Pearce’s conversion came back off the upright.

Camborne responded within a couple of minutes as strong work from forwards Martyn Lawrence and Jon Drew led to Southworth being mauled over.

Launceston were having plenty of possession and despite looking dangerous couldn’t grab that second try. Brownfield then kicked a penalty right on the half-time whistle to send the Cherry and Whites into the changing rooms with a 12-point lead.

Pearce has replaced Coles as first choice kicker in recent weeks and after the hosts infringed once more, the former Bude man blasted over a 40-metre penalty, the first of five in the second period.

Camborne went into the game fourth for a reason and responded again with Southworth being mauled over once more. Brownfield again kept his composure to make it 24-8.

Giant lock Damien Cook was yellow-carded as was scrum-half Taron Peacock as the All Blacks sensed their chance to produce a storming comeback.

Three penalties from Pearce in the space of 15 minutes ensured they stayed in the contest but Brownfield slotted a three-pointer of his own on 68 minutes to make it 27-17.

Pearce added a fifth penalty before the end to ensure a losing bonus point, but despite doing their best to grab a converted try for a second draw in succession, Camborne held on.

Bracknell’s victory over bottom side Newbury Blues means that the All Blacks are now four points from safety ahead of this Saturday’s home clash with Drybrook (3pm).

Westren admitted that it was the same old story of playing well without getting their just rewards.

He said: “At 24-8 down we stayed in the game by kicking the goals. But every time we scored we gave them field position or made a mistake to give them some territory.

“But we had them visibly rattled. Anyone there would say that was the case but we need to do it for longer periods of time and start winning. We need to get out of the habit of losing.

“I’m a big believer that more often that not if you get your performance right, the result will take care of itself, but at the moment it’s not.

“We’re turning in pretty good performances, but we’re not quite managing the crucial moments in the game. That could be three key moments lasting ten seconds each over the course of the game, but they’re hurting us and undoing the good work we’re doing the rest of the time.

“For the last four or five weeks, we’ve put in good team performances, but we need to cut out some basic individual errors which creep in now and again.”

Westren is confident though that the points will come.

He said: “A lot of it is is unforced errors from us or someone going off script. If we can cut these out the results should turn soon. As a team we’ve improved massively but we’ll go and concede a try from a set piece or from our mistake as opposed to them having to work for it.

“From a coach’s standpoint, I couldn’t ask anymore from the boys in terms of executing what we’ve asked them to do, but again we’ve had a couple of silly moments which has been the case for the last four or five weeks. They’re totally avoidable things such as not chasing a kick down properly which allows them to then gain 30 metres. It feels like we’re beating ourselves. It’s not as if we’re getting pumped in each area every week.

“We’re more than competitive in the scrum and in the lineout and our defence has improved massively, so we can’t argue with those aspects, it’s just those one percent things which tip the balance of a game. All it takes is one opening and good sides will punish you for it.”

Drybrook are the visitors to North Cornwall on Saturday.

Westren said: “They’re a typical Gloucestershire side in that they’re very combative up front and base their game on winning the physical battle and then adding the layers to that.

“If we can get the set pieces right and win our individual battles, then we shouldn’t be far off getting the right result.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Edwards, Pearce, Crawford, Westren, Kneebone, Coles, Mulberry; Carpenter, Bulut, Thomas, Bottoms, Clarke, Cinnamond, Lightfoot, L Duke (captain).

Replacements: Bartlett, Lang, Collings.

Tries: L Duke.

Convs: N/A.

Pens: Pearce 5.

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Rory Cinnamond.