Saturday, March 9

Tribute South West One (West)

Devonport Services 22

Cornish All Blacks 26

AIDEN Jacob’s try with ten minutes to go kept the Cornish All Blacks right on the heels of leaders Okehampton after a thrilling 26-22 victory at Devonport Services on Saturday.

Despite winning the reverse fixture 66-15 back in November, the visitors knew that they would be in for a tough test against a side who had lost just once at home all year.

And their cause was made that much tougher before kick-off as key fly-half Glenn Coles was ruled out with a quad injury on Thursday night and player/coach Ryan Westren was forced to pull out with a back injury in the warm-up.

That meant winger Will Morton and centre Shaun Crawford were drafted straight into the starting 15, meaning Martin Kneebone vacated his usual spot on the wing for Morton to move to 15 with Tom Sandercock going to 12 and Reuben Edwards to Coles’ slot at ten.

In the forwards, Andy Knight was unavailable and replaced by Dan Goldsmith in the second-row.

The All Blacks’ away form on the whole has been excellent all year in losing just twice, and they took the lead inside quarter of an hour in controversial circumstances.

Devonport had a lineout 20 metres from their own line and as they looked to pass the ball to their scrum-half, Dylan Daley, but the ball went loose.

Hooker Levent Bulut hacked the ball clear to his left, allowing skipper Lloyd Duke to gather and run in unopposed from ten metres out.

However, the Plymouth-based side believed that he was offside and that the try shouldn’t have counted. Kneebone, standing in for Coles, slotted the extras.

The game in open play was fairly even and ‘The Sporting Blues’ levelled things up on 25 minutes. A clearing kick from scrum-half Dom Mulberry was fielded on halfway, although he was tackled straight away. However, Devonport worked the ball across the pitch quickly, ending with prop Struan Main crashing over in the corner.

Fly-half Richard Goldsby-West notched the extras to make it 7-7.

The one area where Launceston were on top was at scrum time, and it was from that they were awarded a penalty try shortly after the half-hour.

After sustained pressure, which saw plenty of scrums, referee Steve Bubyer awarded a penalty try.

At 14-7 up, the All Blacks looked set to go into the interval with a lead. However they gave away a penalty on halfway which was brilliantly kicked to within five metres of the line.

From the resulting lineout, a driving maul was formed, which ended with flanker Will Marsh dotting down to score. Goldsby-West added the extras to send the sides in at all square.

The try before the break seemed to galvanise the home team and they went in front through an unconverted score shortly after the restart.

With the All Blacks attacking near halfway and with no-one back defending, the ball was ripped out of a player’s hands and lock Tyler Busfield was grateful to collect and then run unopposed to the line and send the home fans inside the Rectory wild.

A defeat here coupled with Okehampton’s 40-24 victory at Teignmouth would have meant Okehampton could afford to lose once and still go up as champions.

But to Launceston’s credit, they continued to battle away manfully, utilising their destructive scrum as much as possible.

On the hour, they were given a second penalty try of the day following more infringements, although Devonport director of rugby, Mike Lewis, was left furious with the decision afterwards.

However his mood would have been lifted straight from kick-off. Replacement flanker Harry Lightfoot was adjudged to have held on to the ball for too long on the floor and Goldsby-West had the simple task of knocking over a 25-metre penalty from right in front and sent them 22-21 ahead.

The All Blacks themselves then almost immediately responded in bizarre circumstances. Kneebone’s 30-metre penalty hit the upright and bounced out to Morton seven-metres out from the line with no-one around him. However, the former Saltash winger knocked on and the chance was gone.

As the minutes passed by the All Blacks were getting desperate, but secured the match-clinching try ten minutes before the end as a great offload from the rampaging Kneebone sent Jacob away down the right-wing to run in from 20 metres.

With ten minutes to go, the visitors would have expected to come under sustained pressure.

However, they kept the ball brilliantly and used their scrum to run the clock down. Eventually, with time up, replacement scrum-half Adam Collings booted the ball into touch and the All Blacks had passed an extremely difficult challenge to remain three points behind Okehampton with four games to go.

Cornish All Blacks skipper Lloyd Duke admitted that their scrum proved the difference.

He said: “Their home record is really good having only lost once all year, so for us it was fantastic. It was quite a level game bar the scrum. They were defensively solid and hard to break down, but the boys worked hard and on the day we deserved to win really. To get the fourth bonus-point try was fantastic.

“Also, with Newent nine points behind, losing would have meant that they were only one win behind, so the win has made a top-two finish look highly likely.”

Duke admitted that to win with a number of players out of position, was even more special.

He said: “It makes it even better really. Glenn has done a really good job all season at managing our games away from home. With Reuben at fly-half, where he hasn’t played that much, he did a really good job.

“You’ve also got to give credit to the front five in the scrum. Rikki (Bentham) and Greg (Thomas) at prop are doing a stellar job and if you look at Saturday’s second-row of Dan (Goldsmith) and Jordan (Duke) who aren’t the heaviest in the world, they’re considerably punching above their weight.”

With three of their fixtures at Polson Bridge, starting with basement boys Coney Hill next Saturday, Duke wants the squad to keep their foot on the gas.

He said: “Before we played Cullompton we said we wanted to finish well and to get ten points from the first two of those six, we couldn’t ask for anymore really.

“We now have to set our sights on Coney Hill for next week. Some people might think its a formality but these teams down at the bottom like to upset some parties, so we need to be on our mettle against them.”

Cornish All Blacks —

Kneebone, Jacob, Crawford, Sandercock, Morton, Edwards, Mulberry; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, Goldsmith, J Duke, Clarke, L Duke (captain), Rowley

Replacements: Jenkins, Lightfoot, Collings

Tries: L Duke, penalty tries 2, Jacob

Convs: Kneebone

Pens: N/A

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Rikki Bentham