St Austell RFC 9 - 11 Wellington

Saints came agonisingly close to ending Wellington's unbeaten start to the season in a tense encounter at Tregorrick Park but can be proud of their efforts and could easily have beaten the top two in the league in the last fortnight.

There was a large crowd at Tregorrick Park paying their respects to centre Tony Marshall who tragically passed away last Saturday and also a minutes silence before the match with the Saints 2nd team and Bodmin 2nd's also joining with Saints and Wellington in what was a highly emotional day.

Saints were playing with the wind behind them in the first half and although having the better of the territory and possession, didn't get any points on the board until 30 minutes in when centre Andy Ashwin slotted over a penalty from 30 yards to make it 3-0. Wellington were soon on level terms when Saints tried to run the ball out of defence and were caught and failed to release allowing Wellington fly half Matt Parsons a simple penalty.

Although there was just enough time left to for Saints to retake the lead with another well struck Ashwin penalty making it 6-3, with the conditions against them in the second half Saints were always going to be up against it and not scoring enough points playing with the elements ultimately cost them the match.

It took Wellington only 5 minutes of the second half to take the lead when from a scrum slick hands sent winger Matt Stanyard over on the blind side to touch down. Wellington were using the conditions better than St Austell with Parsons kicking well for the corners and pinning the home side back, and things looked bleak when close to the hour he landed his second penalty to put Wellington 11-6 up. Rather than throw the towel in Saints upped their game and with the help of the crowd took the game to Wellington, the forwards started driving up the field and were camped in the Wellington half allowing Ashwin to convert his third penalty to leave the Saints trailing by only 2 points at 11-9.

Saints were now looking for victory and another forward surge took them right to the Wellington line and in preventing a try Wellington gave away a penalty to the left of the posts. Up stepped Ashwin who had kicked three from three and when he struck the penalty the crowd roared but this soon turned to groans as the wind swept the ball across the posts although Wellington were forced to concede a five yard scrum and Saints almost scored again when the ball was dropped with the line undefended. However it was not to be and Wellington cleared their line and spent the last few minutes on the Saints line and held on for victory.

This was a brilliant team effort from St Austell with every player playing his part and bodes well for the rest of the season. Next week Saints are away to Liskeard/Looe.