Saints progresses into the second round of the Skinners Cornwall Cup with a lacklustre performance against a hardworking Saltash side at Tregorrick Park.

Again the Saints were one of the few teams in the area to play and underfoot conditions were fine for running rugby. St Austell started with the strong wind behind them and were soon 3 points up when fly half Andy Ashwin kicked a long range penalty after Saltash were caught offside and their lead was soon doubled when after 10 minutes Ashwin slotted over a neat drop goal. With the Saints pack winning plenty of ball, a try had to come and centre Marshall duly obliged. He took the ball at pace 20 yards out to slice straight through the Saltash defence to put the home team 11-0 up.

Saltash had their moments and twice Saints full back Ian Venner had to make try saving tackles after Saltash had breached St Austell's first line of defence. However, it was Saints who added to their score first on the half hour when Ashwin added another penalty and when a Saints kick was touched in flight Adam Kellow who was 30 yards ahead, collected the ball and raced to the line unopposed to put Saints 19-0 up at the half way point.

The second half was more even with both teams trying to run the ball but defences were generally on top. The half was only five minutes old when after a strong surge hooker Ryan Raynor reached out and grounded the ball over the line to make it 19-5. Saints had more of the play for the rest of the match and on the hour scored the final try of the match when the ball spread along the backs line for full back Venner to take the ball at pace and score wide out to make it 24-5. The last 20 minutes were littered with errors and when the final whistle went Saints were through.

Next week Saints are away to Exeter Saracens.

Team sheet

R Mace
J Hughes
S Smith
Jeremy Grigg
A Pearce
J Grigg
R Jeffs
A Kellow
D Stacey
A Ashwin
M Esien
K Murphy
T Marshall
T Richardson
I Venner