CORNISH?All Blacks’ head of rugby, Jimmy Tucker, admits that he was ‘fairly satisfied’ with his players despite going down to a 31-10 defeat at Newton Abbot in their opening pre-season game last Friday night.

The All Blacks kick-off their South West 1 (West) campaign at Keynsham in just over two weeks’ time, and with 26 players making the trip to East Devon, Tucker and his compatriot Colin Stewart agreed to play three 25-minute sections to allow everyone ample match practice without ruining the pattern of the game.

However, once the game started, The All Whites, who ply their trade in the South West Premier (formerly National League Three South West), ran out comfortable winners, although the game was decided in the second third with Stewart’s men scoring 24 unanswered points to make it 31-3.

The All Blacks regrouped and scored the only points of the final third, winger Harry Dawe going over for a try which was converted by Dan Pearce. Ben Hawke had earlier converted a penalty to get the visitors on the board.

Former Polson Bridge favourite Matt Jess, who was recently released by Premiership champions Exeter Chiefs and is now a player/coach at Rackerhayes, came off the bench for the home side to score, while Jack Sweeney, Jaryd Harris, Jake Monnington and Tyler Busfield also went over with Cameron Fogden adding three conversions.

Tucker admitted that he was pleased with his players and is targeting a victory on?Saturday when Newton Abbot’s league rivals Camborne make the trip to Polson Bridge (3pm).

Tucker said:?“I have to say I was fairly satisfied with the players on Friday night.

“Normally the first pre-season game is very error-strewn and messy but I thought we played quite well considering we’re playing a team who are now in a higher league than us and that it was our first game in a long time.

“For long periods of the game we more than matched Newton Abbot, although they got away from us in the second third, and I was delighted with the way we played in the third part and the try we scored from Harry Dawe.

“Our backline looked relatively dangerous and for the first test of the season I have to say I’m quite happy, so hopefully we can perform like that on Saturday and hopefully pick up a win.”

Tucker and Stewart agreed to play three 25 minute sections and Tucker explained the thinking behind it.

Tucker said: “There are a lot of players fighting for positions and we wanted to play three 25 minute sections to make sure that the flow of the game was maintained.

“Most of the players played two of the three thirds and it was good for them to get out on the pitch and have a run-out although we really need to work on our lineout as that wasn’t great but overall I’m happy as I think Newton Abbot will do quite well this year.

“It was also great for our players to play against someone who’s recently been playing in the Premiership with Exeter in Matt Jess to see how he goes about things.”

Attention now turns to the visit of Camborne to Polson Bridge on Saturday and Tucker admits that the intensity in training has gone up a notch in the last couple of weeks as players to look to nail down their starting positions for the first league game in 16 days time.

Tucker said: “We’re getting closer to the start of the season and the training levels have noticeably improved.

“There’s a real competitive edge with the players as they know they really need to perform in training and in the pre-season matches to make sure they make the team for the opening game.

“This Saturday we’ve got Camborne at home and to be honest I don’t really know what to expect from them.

“There have been rumours that a lot of their players have joined other clubs around there but we’ll see what they bring on Saturday.

“I’m not sure yet whether we’ll play a normal 80 minute game or we’ll do what we did against Newton Abbot but I want the players to go out there in front of what I hope will be a reasonable sized crowd and play well.

“With the amount of players we have to choose from and the fact that it’s a Cornish derby, there’s every reason for the players to get stuck in. Hopefully it’ll be played with the intensity of a league game and we see a great contest.

“I’m confident that we’ll be able to give them a really good game and although results aren’t the be all and end all in pre-season it’d be nice to get a win in front of our fans, and if we play like we did on Friday during the first and third sections, I think we’ll be close to doing so.”