National League Three South West

Cleve 38

Cornish All Blacks 0

By David Sillifant

CORNISH All Blacks player/coach Ryan Westren has admitted that his side ‘were still on the bus’ during the opening quarter of an hour of their 38-0 hammering at Cleve in National League Three South West.

The Polson-based club would have been confident of grabbing at least another bonus point from their trip to the outskirts of Bristol following a much improved display at Brixham in their last away outing and the fact that Cleve were just a couple of places above them in the table.

However, a mad 15 minutes put pay to any chance of gaining their first away victory of the campaign as they found themselves 26-0 down.

Westren admitted: “We got it badly wrong in the first 15 minutes where they just trampled all over us. We left it all on the bus during that time and before we knew it the game was pretty much over and that makes it very difficult to take.”

Cleve scored pretty much from the kick-off as they ran the ball out of their own 22.

The ball eventually found its way to Josh Davies who passed the ball to winger Anton Welling to cross in the corner.

Inside the first five minutes Cleve were 12-0 up, as more robust work from their ball carriers allowed Steve Bath to go over. This time Joe Hall converted.

Cleve continued to dominate and added a couple more tries in quick time as Welling grabbed his second of the afternoon before Australian centre Nicholas Ward also got in on the act.

A desperately disappointing first-half was summed up when prop Andy Knight was harshly sin-binned.

Following the opening skirmishes the All Blacks played some decent rugby, regularly stationing themselves close to the home try line but ultimately failed to get on the scoreboard.

The second-half was again more of the same as some loose rugby and poor decision making meant Cleve were able to keep their ‘zero’ intact.

Half-time sub, Pierre Tucker, helped himself to two further tries as the game headed towards its inevitable conclusion.

Reflecting on the game, Westren said: “We need to get at these teams from the kick-off. They scored straight from that and that put us on the back foot. The conditions weren’t that great but they adapted to it really well and played some really good rugby in the opening stages.

“They had big ball carriers who were able to break the game line and that put us under massive pressure, and we couldn’t stop them.

“But once we got into the game we actually played quite well. We had a lot of territory in and around their 22 but we’ve got to stop being so naïve and better in our mindset.

“We know we don’t have the biggest squad but we need to be able to tackle them and get them down by any means necessary and also make sure we start taking our chances. That’s what we’ll work on throughout the week, trying to improve our game awareness and decision making in crucial areas.”

Saturday’s loss has made things extremely difficult.

With three teams going down, the All Blacks have won just twice and find themselves 11 points from safety with exactly half of the season gone.

And although Westren knows things look bleak from the outside, he still maintains that they have enough about them to avoid a second consecutive relegation.

He said: “Eleven points adrift isn’t great but that’s only two wins. As a coaching staff we haven’t mentioned the possibility of going down but we obviously need to get some wins.

“Saturday is a massive home game against the Hornets. Although I didn’t play in the away fixture, the team said that they’re certainly beatable but we need to prove it. I’ve said it so often this season that these teams are beatable but we haven’t gone out and got the points.

“Time and time again we haven’t done ourselves justice and that’s the most frustrating thing. If teams beat us by playing brilliant rugby and we’ve played to our maximum then you can accept it. But too many times now we haven’t turned up as we’d want, and that now has to change.”

There has been some good news though at the club. They have managed to extend the loan signing of Redruth scrum-half Sam Stevens until the end of February while fellow number nine, Tom Sandercock, could make his return after a couple of weeks out due to a minor operation.

Westren added: “Having Sam stay with us until the end of February is really good news for us. It allows us to have a slightly bigger squad, which creates competition for places and that’s something we need to have, players fighting it out for positions.

“The worst thing that can happen at a club is when a player knows they’re going to play every game, so the extension of Sam’s loan is really good news. He and Tom can also play in a couple of positions so it gives us some food for thought as to what team we go with.”

Kick-off for Saturday’s clash with Hornets at Polson Bridge is at 2.30pm.