THE Cornish All Blacks leapfrogged Newent into third in the South West One (West) table after beating their Gloucestershire-based rivals 29-7 at a muddy Polson Bridge.
Although the game itself was a niggly, often scrappy affair, with plenty of fighting, the All Blacks led 24-7 at the break thanks to Lloyd Duke’s brace, Torin Clarke’s touchdown and Dan Pearce’s penalty and three conversions.
The second-half continued in the same vein with referee Will Thomas struggling to keep order, but Jimmy Tucker’s men grabbed a fourth try and the bonus point thanks to Ben Hawke’s score on 78 minutes.
Tucker and his coaching staff made just one change from the 47-14 victory over Matson as Chris Macdonald returned from injury to replace Jordan Duke in the second-row, with Duke dropping down to the bench for his final appearance before going to South Africa for a couple of months.
Newent gave the All Blacks a 51-27 hiding back in September and went into the game two points ahead in the table. And you could see why in the opening stages as they gave the home side the runaround.
The All Blacks missed a few crucial tackles, and conceded a penalty. Newent kicked to the corner and were organised in their pack. It was only a matter of time before they scored, and three minutes in James Dean went over for a try, which was converted by Tommy Devries.
It was a wake-up call for the All Blacks. They had to hold onto ball. They missed a penalty and what looked like a sure fire try amounted to nothing as the referee signalled a knock-on and play was taken back to where the infringement had taken place.
The referee was forced to speak to both skippers after the first scuffle broke out. A scrum in front of the Newent try line resulted in the All Blacks’ first try on 15 minutes, which was scored by skipper Lloyd Duke and converted by Dan Pearce.
However, it was marred somewhat by another incident with a number of punches thrown by both sides, which on another day could easily have seen Thomas go to his pocket.
Pearce kicked another penalty five minutes later to put the All Blacks 10-7 in front.
Newent found themselves a man down as Mikey Addis was given ten minutes in the sin-bin for continually causing trouble.
There were two more converted tries for the home side before the break. The first was scored on 31 minutes by Torin Clarke, who used his power to burrow over from close range, before the second came just before-half-time after a dreadful mistake by scrum-half James Dean.
Situated just inside their own half at a ruck, Dean inexplicably threw his pass straight into the hands of the onrushing Duke who had a free run to the line.
Despite a number of Newent defenders doing their best to catch him, the openside-flanker just had the legs to get there and send the majority of the 400 plus crowd wild.
More scuffles followed in the second-half with Jon Dawe and Newent’s Fred Nottingham both spending ten minutes on the sidelines after aiming punches at each other.
The All Blacks went off the boil a bit, but battled on. Although they were relatively safe, they were desperate for one more try and a bonus point.
They moved play down the field to the try line, and had a few attempts to find touch, but to no avail.
There was a short break in play after Newent’s replacement, Ollie Mansfield, was knocked out.
When play resumed with just a few minutes remaning, All Blacks player/coach Ryan Westren made a quick dash with the ball, but was brought down. However, the ball was picked up by left-winger Ben Hawke who went over in the corner.
The remainder of the game descended into chaos, with the referee having to stop play to deal with a fight elsewhere on the pitch, which ended up with Jake Crabb sin-binned.
In the end though it didn’t matter as the All Blacks eased to another victory ahead of their trip to Somerset on Saturday to take on struggling North Petherton.
Skipper Lloyd Duke admitted that it was good to get one over on Newent and admitted he was shocked by their gameplan.
He said: “We had a score to settle with them after what happened up there and we managed to do that with a good win. We knew we had to front up physically but they had this bizarre plan to try and get right in our faces and against a Cornish team that doesn’t often work. It was the first time we’d been physically tested like that all season but the way we fronted up and still played some decent rugby made it very pleasing.
“Having said that, we weren’t expecting them to come down and play like that at all, especially for a third-placed team who are a decent side. But the good thing is, our set piece has got a lot stronger and they couldn’t deal with it. It was a bizarre thing for them to do. They said that the pitch was rubbish but we still managed to score four tries, three of which were good, so it shows that we can adapt.
“I think that’s the reason why we’re doing so well at the minute is because we’re skilful all over. Although a lot of the other teams in this league can play good rugby when it’s dry, not everyone can do it when it’s wet and muddy.”
A 24-7 half-time lead can be dangerous, especially if the team losing get the first try, and Duke admitted it was talked about at the interval.
He said: “We said at half-time that they’d come hard at us for the first ten minutes of the second-half and it was crucial that we managed to weather the storm.
“Ultimately we were confident and then it was about making sure we got the fourth bonus point try, even if it did come a bit later than we’d have liked. But in the end we did it and it was a great day for us to move above them in the table.”
While the All Blacks have plenty of firepower in their back division, Duke admitted that the return from injury of Rikki Bentham and the signing of Zach Cinnamond had been key to their recent form.
He said: “If the scrum is going backwards you’re always going to be in trouble. At the beginning of the season we didn’t play with our first choice front three enough and now we are, we’re seeing the results.
“Rikki’s got a run of games again after injury and Zac has made a massive difference, especially now he’s getting fitter. They’ve shored up the scrum and Zac is also making some massive carries now. Those two would walk into any team in this league and possibly the one above so it’s massively pleasing to have them.”
Duke was also delighted to have Chris Macdonald back after two months out with a neck injury.
He said: “It was great to see Chris back in the team and he did pretty well. He was obviously lacking a bit of match fitness but he’s a very good player, especially in these conditions, and is a very good ball carrier.”
The All Blacks have played just once away from home since mid-November, a 35-15 defeat at second-placed Drybrook, and Duke admits that they need to get into a different mindset of playing away from Polson Bridge, ahead of Saturday’s trip to North Petherton.
He said: “It’ll be talked about this week of making sure that we approach the game in the right way. It’s a different mindset playing away from home, especially as it’s been ages now since we’ve not walked out on our home pitch.
“North Petherton made it extremely hard at our place. They were good at slowing the ball down and I’d imagine it’ll be their game plan again. We just managed to beat them with a try right near the end. They were very good in the tight and they’ll spoil the game and slow it down and were also quite decent at set-pieces.
“But if we can front up in those departments then we’ll have a very good chance of coming away with the points.”