National Two South

Southend Saxons 19

Cornish All Blacks 13

Warners Bridge Park

CORNISH All Blacks’ relegation from National Two South — with seven matches of their season still remaining — was confirmed with an agonising defeat in Essex.

Southend Saxons, who were one place above the All Blacks in the table, desperately needed the win to keep alive their own hopes of avoiding the drop, and they trailed 10-0 at one stage.

But it took until the last play of the game for them to snatch a converted try through Brad Burr, which denied the All Blacks their first win of the season, on St Piran’s Day.

All Blacks head of rugby Jimmy Tucker said: “We were resigned to relegation weeks ago, so that was not an issue for us today.

“It is quite gutting to lose to the last play of the game but I am proud of our performance and there was plenty of commitment.

“I believe our future is sound. We are currently blooding players who are up to the task and they are growing into the shirt.”

With their fate all but sealed before the game, the All Blacks gave a debut to loose-head prop Nick Hocking, and first starts to blindside flanker Dom Theobald and full-back Tom Sandercock.

There were also three new faces on the replacements’ bench in Josh Langton, Marc Williams and Sam Snell.

The game, in which Southend had a back rower sent off in the second half saw the All Blacks hold a 7-0 interval lead, with a first senior try for the club by lock Seb Hockridge, converted by fly-half Fraser Honey.

They stretched that to 10-0 with a Honey penalty, but Southend then came storming back with two quick tries by winger Reuben Haile, with one converted by Burr, for the Saxons to lead 12-10.

Another Honey penalty edged the Cornish All Blacks back into the lead, but deep into injury time came the killer blow from Southend to send the All Blacks into National Three South West next season.

Southend Saxons — Tries: Haile x2, Burr. Convs: Burr x2

Cornish All Blacks — Try: Hockridge. Pens: Honey x2. Conv: Honey

Cornish All Blacks: T Sandercock, S Chapman, R Westren, C Swash, M Kneebone, F Honey, R Friend (Capt.), N Hocking, L Bulut, L Chapman, B Hilton, S Hockridge, D Theobald, L Duke, J Duke. Replacements: D Parish, J Langton, M Williams, S Snell, A Edwards

• THIS weekend the All Blacks travel to Taunton Titans for their rearranged league fixture.