By Paul Hayes
REGIONAL ONE SOUTH WEST (SATURDAY)
St Austell 47 Launceston 21
THE Saints secured their first ever league double over Launceston as a superb second half performance saw them ease to a 47-21 success over their Cornish rivals at a raucous Tregorrick Park.
It was a belated St Piran’s Day celebration and the Colts had already played their part with a brilliant 26-24 win over Launceston in the curtain raiser.
A large crowd gathered at Tregorrick, but it was the visitors who did much of the early running.
The Saints were being stretched, and quick thinking from scrum-[half George Hillson from a tap penalty saw him grab the opening try which he converted himself (0-7).
Quick hands across the home backline found hooker Pete Harris loitering with intent on the touchline and he finished in style in the corner (5-7).
The CABs regained a foothold in the Saints 22 and livewire Hillson scampered over to stretch the visitors’ lead (5-14).
Undeterred, the Saints struck back with a ‘catch and drive’ routine finished by prop Matt Boothby (12-14).
The home side almost turned the game on its head when full-back Archie Bees handed off the first-up defender on the halfway line to glide into Lanson territory and set Dan Tyrrell on his way, only to be stopped by a superb last-ditch covering tackle from former Saint James Tucker.
A collapsed maul saw Saints number eight Adam Powell sent to the bin and CABs took immediate advantage of the disparity in numbers.
While the catch and drive was initially stopped, the visitors worked the ball through the phases before Tucker spun out of the tackle to score (12-21).
It was important that the home side scored next to prevent the gap getting any wider and with the Saints scrum starting to gain the edge, it provided the perfect platform to launch an attack.
Bees joined the backline slicing through the black-wall before playing in Tyrrell who powered down the touchline to score in the corner. Matt Shepherd’s touchline conversion made it 21-19 at half-time and it was all to play for in the second period.
The Saints started the second half determined to assert themselves on the opposition, and after being denied by some determined defending, the pressure told as a superb pass from fly-half Chris Ashwin found Shepherd.
With space to work, the Saints centre side-stepped inside to score by the posts (26-21).
Launceston woes were compounded when Tucker was shown a yellow card and No8. Adam Powell picked up from the base of another dominant scrum to feed the excellent Will Tanswell whose delightful dummy wrong footed the defence allowing centre Sam Parsons to trot unhindered to the try line (33-21).
The score of the day came on the 70th minute with a team effort that saw the Saints running the ball through multiple hands and phases as it traversed the width of the pitch three times before Hector Bright dotted down in the corner.
Fittingly, Shepherd made light work of a difficult kick to add another touchline conversion (40-21), before a clinical catch and drive from Boothby rounded off the scoring (47-21).
The win takes the home side up to fifth, just one point behind Launceston in fourth with two games remaining.
St Austell have next Saturday off before a first ever visit to Marlborough on March 22.
ST AUSTELL: Archie Bees, Pete Tuckley, Matt Shepherd, Sam Parsons, Dan Tyrrell, Chris Ashwin, Will Tanswell; Matt Boothby, Peter Harris, Peter Rowe, Tom Daniel, Mark Vian (capt), Kyle Marriott, Kaydan Michael, Adam Powell. Replacements: Ben Woodmansey, Hector Bright, Jamie Stanlake.