Saturday, February 3

Tribute South West One (West)

Teignmouth 17

Cornish All Blacks 28

THE Cornish All Blacks bounced back from a poor first-half performance to beat Teignmouth and make it six wins on the spin.

Jimmy Tucker’s men put in a woeful opening 40 minutes to trail 17-6, but came flying out of the traps after the break to earn a comfortable victory and cement third place in the table.

The All Blacks made three changes from their 34-13 victory over Okehampton a week before with two of those enforced.

Dan Goldsmith replaced the concussed Jake Crabb in the second-row while Chris McDonald returned at number eight in place of Torin Clarke, who was injured in a Cornwall Under 20 game on the Sunday.

Young winger Reuben Edwards also came in for Harry Dawe, who dropped to the bench.

The All Blacks started slowly and found themselves behind in the first minute as winger Matt Laventure went over in the corner after full-back Aaron Smith had made an excellent run into the Launceston 22.

Teignmouth were causing the visiting defence plenty of problems and added further tries before the break from lock Dan Aldsworth — both of them coming from big drives, with the second right on the stroke of half-time.

All the All Blacks had to show for their efforts were two Dan Pearce penalties.

After some choice words at the break, the away side came out all guns blazing. Good work from the forwards got the All Blacks to within five metres of the line, which allowed flanker Brandon Rowley to score. Pearce converted and the game was back in the balance.

Their second try wasn’t long in coming although it came in rather unusual circumstances.

The All Blacks were awarded a penalty which they kicked to the corner some five metres out. They planned on forming a maul, however when Fred Bulut’s throw reached skipper Lloyd Duke at the back, Teignmouth refused to form the maul. Sensing his chance, Duke ran in unopposed for his fourth try in as many games and to put the Cornishmen into an 18-17 lead.

Although Pearce missed the conversion, he added a penalty with eight minutes to go to increase the lead to four points.

Despite their best efforts, Teignmouth couldn’t force a winning score. Instead visiting prop Zac Cinnamond charged over for his first try for the club after scrum-half Shaun Crawford had ripped the ball following a scrum.

Launceston’s mood was helped even further by news that second-placed Drybrook had lost at bottom side Clevedon.

However, the Gloucestershire-based club have a six-point advantage with two games in-hand.

Despite the win, Duke admitted that the game should have been over well before the break.

He said: “We were shocking in the first-half and 17-6 flattered us. To be honest we may have slightly underestimated them, which isn’t a great thing to say. They were able to manipulate us all over the field and pick holes through us at will. To only be two scores down at half-time wasn’t bad considering.

“There were a few choice words because we missed a number of easy tackles and our intensity was nowhere near where it needed to be. Everyone believed we could go out there and still get the win and luckily we managed to do it.”

Looking ahead, Duke knows that it’s Drybrook’s to lose in the race for second spot.

He said: “We’ve set our objectives that whatever happens around us we need to keep winning. If we do that, they’ll keep looking back at us and we still have them to play down here. Although we know it’s probably unrealistic, we want to make sure that if we do finish third, it’s extremely close and we’ve made them work for it.”

On Saturday, the All Blacks visit Wadebridge Camels?(2pm) in the semi-final of the Tribute Cornwall Cup.

Cornish All Blacks —

Kneebone, Pearce, Westren, Sandercock, Edwards, Hawke, Crawford; Bentham, Bulut, Z Cinnamond, Williams, Goldsmith, Rowley, L Duke, McDonald

Replacements: R Cinnamond, Parish, H Dawe

Tries: Rowley, L Duke, Z Cinnamond

Convs: Pearce

Pens: Pearce 3