Saturday, September 1

Tribute South West One (West)

Cornish All Blacks 36

ADAM?Collings put in a man-of-the-match performance on his return to the club as the Cornish All Blacks got their league campaign underway with a 36-25 victory at relegated Lydney on Saturday.

The Cornishmen, who finished third last term and were under the guidance of new joint head coaches Ryan?Westren and Ian Goldsmith for the first time in a competitive fixture, put in an excellent display against a club hotly-tipped to be amongst their rivals for promotion come April.

The opening ten minutes were an even affair with both teams taking turns to attack without making it count.

However, Lydney went ahead when outside-centre Reuben Hale broke through to run in under the posts after the visitors over committed at the breakdown. Winger Jack Sterry kicked the conversion.

The All Blacks fought back well; putting them under sustained pressure and the deficit was reduced to just a point as fly-half Glenn Coles slotted two penalties.

Coles and Collings were orchestrating the game for Launceston with a range of kicks to the corners, which meant the hosts couldn’t get out of their own half.

Their reward came on the half-hour mark as skipper Lloyd Duke dotted down from less than a metre out after a number of team phases led to a five-metre scrum from which they scored.

At 11-7 at half-time, few would have expected to see so much action in the second 40.

The first 20 minutes of the second-half saw both teams have chances to score without doing so, and in the end, Sterry took advantage of some poor discipline from the All Blacks to nail two penalties.

This woke the Cornishmen up and they scored twice in quick succession.

After kicking a penalty to the corner, a lineout move ended with flanker Brandon Rowley going over. Coles kicked the conversion.

Collings was pulling the strings from scrum-half and he got his reward moments later. After another penalty was kicked to the corner just a few metres from the home line, a driving maul was set-up which Collings finished off.

Lydney kept themselves in it when lock Dave Bennett fell over the line after a good kick from home fly-half Nathan Tucker caused panic in the Launceston defence.

Launceston were grateful for the home side’s ill-discipline soon after as dissent to the referee saw a penalty just in the Lydney half brought forward ten metres. This allowed Coles to slot over the long-range kick and extend the lead to eight points.

At 26-18 ahead with less than ten minutes to go, the All Blacks knew that one more try would probably seal it and it came in bizarre circumstances.

Flying winger Dan Pearce chipped the ball over the top from 40 metres out, and was in a foot race with full-back Alex Nelmes, who was making his first-team debut. Knowing he had no chance of stopping Pearce legally, Nelmes tackled him off the ball. However, inside-centre Shaun Crawford was on hand to pick up the loose ball and run in unopposed from ten metres to make it 31-18.

Their final try owed much to the never-say-die attitude of winger Martin Kneebone.

After Collings’ box-kick landed just a couple of metres from the home line, winger Kneebone tackled Nelmes and shoved him back over the try line to earn Launceston a five-metre scrum.

From there, Rowley, who had moved to number eight for the latter stages, laid the ball off to Duke, who had no-one around him to score his second of the day.

Lydney did score a try from James Walter with the last play of the game, which was converted by Sterry.

But in the end, it was the All Blacks who left Regentsholme with the maximum five points ahead of Saturday’s first home game against Newent.

Player/coach, Ryan Westren, admitted he was delighted with how the players kept to the gameplan.

He said:?“We spoke before about sticking to what we’ve practiced. The danger when things aren’t going your way is to panic and change it. But more often than not, if you stick to your processes you get your rewards and after about 60 minutes we pulled away.”

Westren was full of praise for Coles and Collings, who were playing for the first time together in a league match.

He said: “Both half-backs managed the game really well. We found something which worked and kept to it and took full advantage.

“However, that only comes from having a solid set-piece and all of our forwards fronted up really well. Everyone did the job required of them.

“Lydney is a tough place to come to, but to win and still have gears to go through isn’t a bad place to be.”

Last year saw the All Blacks lose at Newent early on in the season before winning the home game, and Westren hopes history will repeat itself on Saturday (3pm) against a side known for their attacking style.

He said:?“Newent are a good side and they finished fourth last year for a reason. They beat us easily up there but we beat them at home so it should be a really good game.

“We know that they’ll come down and provide a totally different test as they play a totally different style of rugby.

“We can’t afford to rest on our laurels as they’ll be a totally different kettle of fish.”

Dan Pearce is away on holiday this week while prop Greg Thomas dislocated his elbow at Lydney and is expected to be out for three to four months.

Cornish All Blacks —

Edwards, Kneebone, Westren, Crawford, Pearce, Coles, Collings; Bentham, Bulut, Thomas, Dudden, Williams, Rowley, L Duke (captain), Clarke

Replacements: Knight, Bone, Sandercock

Tries: L Duke 2, Rowley, Collings, Crawford

Convs:?Coles

Pens: Coles 3

Cornish All Blacks’ man-of-the-match: Adam Collings