Saturday, September 22

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 10

THE Cornish All Blacks suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday as they fell to a 17-10 defeat to local rivals Okehampton at Polson Bridge.

Both sides went into the game with three wins from three to start the season; setting up a perfect backdrop to the contest.

While Okehampton weathered a second-half comeback from Keynsham the week before, the All Blacks were romping to a 48-14 victory at North Petherton.

Despite the victory, Launceston made five changes, two of which were enforced.

In the pack, hooker Levent Bulut returned in place of Jordan Duke at hooker while young prop Alex Bartlett made his first ever league start at prop in place of the concussed Chae Jenkins. Dan Goldsmith made his first appearance of the season in the second-row in place of Marc Williams, who was knocked out at North Petherton.

Reuben Edwards and Shaun Crawford came into the backs in place of Dan Pearce who was on the bench, while Tom Sandercock was dropped altogether.

The All Blacks found themselves up against a huge Okehampton pack, which included head coach Gareth Evans at hooker and former All Black prop Rob Dugard, and their front eight proceeded to dominate the entire contest, especially at scrum time.

The ‘Okes’ started well and scored within four minutes.

A kick into the All Blacks’ half eventually led to the away side receiving the ball.

After a number of phases, full-back Dan Fogerty slipped inside a tackle to score in the corner. Fly-half Jack Akery kicked the conversion.

The visitors were dominant in the scrum and strong in their defence, using their vast experience to manage the game.

The All Blacks did hit back without ever looking really threatening but did get on the scoreboard when fly-half Glenn Coles slotted over a penalty from close-range.

Okehampton responded with some good rugby, moving play further down the field until they were camped on the All Blacks’ line.

After plenty of phases, Evans smashed his way over from a couple of metres out. Again, Akery kicked the extras.

The conditions certainly suited Okehampton more than the home side and they extended their lead further on 28 minutes thanks to an Akery penalty.

No further scores were forthcoming as the All Blacks went into the break two converted tries behind.

Clearly riled up at half-time by the coaching staff, Launceston flew out of the blocks, making plenty of yards.

However, they failed to convert their good play into any points.

A couple of penalties were awarded to Okehampton and the visitors tried their best to slow the game down.

With the clock continuing to tick away, the home side needed either a bit of magic or a gift to get back into the game.

Outside-centre Ryan Westren read a stray pass near the halfway line. With the visitors’ players committed, Westren had a clear run to the line which he duly accepted. Coles kicked the extras and they were back to within a converted score of making it all square.

Rattled for the first time in the game, Okehampton continued to give away penalties, eventually leading to prop Pat Nash and flanker Dean Abrams being shown yellow cards within a couple of minutes of each other.

The All Blacks would never have a better chance to score but Okehampton defended brilliantly, kept the ball in the forwards when they had chance and used Akery’s boot to get themselves away from the 22.

They kept the score the same throughout the duration of the sin-bins without ever looking seriously threatened.

With less than a minute to go, the All Blacks were awarded a penalty close to the 22.

Despite being dominated in the scrum throughout, the All Blacks unwisely went for that option but the ball was soon lost and then kicked into touch to give the visitors a famous win and their first at Polson Bridge for over 20 years.

Reflecting on the game, player/coach Ryan Westren said:?“We could have played better. When you don’t assert your set-piece dominance, everything else is a struggle.

“We’ve been used to being in the ascendency for the first three weeks, but we were on the receiving end of that, so it was like being in reverse.

“That then makes you do things. It shows you can’t rest on your laurels. There will be times when it won’t go our way and we have to learn to manage that. We started to do stuff we haven’t practised.

“Neither backline had an influence in the game. With the front foot dominance they had, it’s not a bad result in one sense. But that being said, we had opportunities.

“As bad as we played, for the last 15 minutes we had opportunities. It’s frustrating to lose a derby, but come April I don’t think this will have a bearing on the final table. Hopefully this will focus our minds that bit more.”

Westren admitted that Okehampton were clever with their team selection.

He said: “They knew the forecast and picked the biggest pack they could. From reports we’ve heard, they saw what we did at North Petherton and picked their team accordingly. Our forwards weren’t that bad but the conditions suited their skillset and physical nature. Their set-piece was dominant and it was a perfect storm for them.

“They came to us and did a good job and deserved to win. We’ve just got to learn to manage things when it’s wet and we have a few injuries.

“However, I’m proud at the way we stuck at it. As bad as we were and as dominant as Okehampton were, we still had opportunities to come out with a draw or a win. A bit of game management from us in either half and the game changes.”

Westren and fellow coaches Ian Goldsmith and Oli Bastion shouldn’t have any problems picking up the players as they face promoted St Ives.

Westren said: “The cool thing in rugby is that you get a chance to rectify things. It’s a Cornish derby down there and we’re looking forward to it. They’ve got a similar skillset to Okehampton and hopefully we can put what we learnt against them into this week.

“They’re a big pack, it’s an open pitch and it’s windy and I’m sure they’ll try and use that to their advantage. But hopefully this week we’ll get our game management and defensive stuff right.

“We’ll be working on our defensive spacings and becoming more efficient and streetwise at the breakdown. If we get that right then we’ll be okay.”

Against Okehampton, four of their key forwards were unavailable and Westren hopes to see some of them back at The Recreation Ground.

He said: “Greg Thomas is out long-term but Marc Williams should hopefully be available. With Chae (Jenkins) and Andy (Knight) we’ll have to wait and see and make a call later in the week.”

Kick-off in West Cornwall is at 3pm.

Cornish All Blacks —

Edwards, Morton, Westren, Crawford, Kneebone, Coles, Collings; Bentham, Bulut, Bartlett, Clarke, Goldsmith, Rowley, Bone, L Duke (captain)

Replacements: J Duke, Snell, Pearce

Tries: Westren

Convs: Coles

Pens: Coles

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: George Bone