NATIONAL DIVISION ONE

A drubbing at Polson for Cornish All Blacks

Cornish All Blacks 0, Esher 20

The score line says it all. ‘Nul points’ at Fortress Polson. Where was the passion? Where was the fire? Without taking anything away from an Esher team who put on a more than adequate, but by no means startling, performance it was the Cornish All Blacks who just did not turn up on the day. The line out was bad, the handling often sloppy, kicking from hand went awry and some wrong decisions were made on the pitch. However the tackling was hard and purposeful for all 80 minutes and there were some glimpses of the usual Cornish All Black performance; but they were not enough; writes Tony Randel.

It is not be easy to play your heart out week after week, lose my narrow margins (as has happened over the last month) and then come back in the frame of mind to think that you are going to win. On Saturday that showed. The body language of the Cornish All Blacks, as they ran out, did not look right; and it hardly got any better. Obviously the injuries to Mike Myerscough and Scott Ireland did not help the mental attitude of the hosts but such things are facts of life in the game of rugby.

After the Cornish All Blacks had lost two line-outs in the first five minutes things did not augur well. So it proved when Esher caught the defence napping on 10 minutes with a well worked try down the blind side. Hefty lock Adam Harris gathered the ball from a scrum on the Launceston 22 and made the hard yards before passing to number 8 Mike Blakeburn to score. Cornish All Blacks did come back with some pressure in the Esher 22 but it came to nothing. Esher came close to another try at the end of the first quarter but good defence by Steve Perry, Scott Ireland and Wayne Sprangle kept them out.

Esher extended their lead with a well struck penalty by Dave Hewitt from 38m after 24 minutes. Esher then stepped up a gear and kept the home side pinned back in their own half with a number of good tactical kicks. They crossed the line again on 32 minutes but the final pass was forward! Sighs of relief from the good home crowd. The relief did not last long. Scotland International full back Doug Flockhart broke from the half way line to run a good diagonal before passing to former Munster play-maker Rob Henderson to score. Again Hewitt missed the difficult conversion. Just on the 40 minutes Mike Myerscough was stretchered off and as play restarted after a long break Scott Ireland had to be helped off with a knee problem. A ‘double-whammy’ for the hosts but with the half time interval to recover.

Esher had at least 70% of both possession and territory in the first period so Cornish All Blacks could be thankful that they were only 13 points adrift. The second half did not start well for the home team although they looked more ‘up for it’ than they had done earlier. A badly struck clearance kick went straight into the hands of Flockhart who only just missed with a drop goal attempt. Then came the first of Cornish All Blacks bad decisions. Awarded a penalty on the Esher 22 and then a further 10m they kicked to the corner knowing that the line-out was ‘flaky’ to say the least when an easy three points was on offer. Needless to say they lost the line-out!

Esher were playing better rugby than the Cornish all Blacks but were not having it all their own way. A good period of Launceston play around the end of the third quarter saw Pete Fisher, Steve Perry, Steve Pape and Matt Jess all getting near to the Esher line on a number of occasions but the visitors clung on. When Esher’s Henderson was yellow carded for killing the ball the home side again failed to take advantage of the line-out resulting from the penalty. Possibly another wrong option taken.

Cornish All Blacks were beginning to look a bit sharper and were getting Esher on the back foot. This resulted in two further penalties around 70 minutes; again both kicked towards the corner and no result from the line-outs. It could be argued that three points was no good at that stage but it could easily have been 12 by then and the visitors under pressure to retain a slender lead. It is no good crying over the proverbial spilled milk but there is much to be said for just keeping the score board ticking over – once it starts ticking it can be difficult to stop!

The final nail was put in the Cornish All Blacks coffin by a second Mike Blakeburn try on 78 minutes after fly half Dale Hewitt had made a good break from 30m out; Hewitt converted to bring the final score to 0-20.

So ended a sorry day for the Cornish All Blacks. With two influential players out for a while and a very tough December to come it will take all the fire, the passion and the skill that everyone involved can muster to keep the show on the road. The last two weeks should have brought eight points; they only brought one. Maybe, just maybe, December will be better than the pundits predict. Remember that the pundits, and most others, wrote off England before the World Cup and look what happened when they got the mental part right! Come on You Blacks – give us a bright run up to Christmas!

Cornish All Blacks: Andy Birkett (capt), Matt Jess, Ryan Westren (Marc Sweeney 54), Steve Perry, Jon Fabian, Scott Ireland (Pete Fisher 40), Sam Alford (Marc Dibble 72), Jasaon Bolt, Neil Clark (Owen Hambly 63), Wayne Reed (Richard Liddington 54), Mike Myerscough (Tom Parker 39), Josh Lord (Sam Hocking 63), Wayne Sprangle, Tinus du Plessis

Esher: Doug Flockhart, Matt Moore, Bevon Aremitasge, Rob Henderson, Charlie Amesbury, Dave Hewitt, Graham Barr (Llyr Lane 77), Duncan Cormack (capt), James Campbell (Simon Goldsmith 77), Andrerw Alexander (Don Mulard 73), James Inglis, Adam Harris (Mike Butterworth 67), George Robson, Lee Starling, Mike Blakeburn; reps not used; Tim Yellow-Lees, T Clouston, Stewart Turton

Scorers: tries, Blakeburn (2), Henderson; con, Hewitt; pen , Hewitt

Referee; Mr Dale Newitt (RFU)