After a lacklustre start to their league campaign last week St Austell redeemed themselves with a convincing 50-0 victory over St Just.
St Austell's mini junior section gave the crowd a display of their skills before the kick-off and once the game started the seniors carried on the party atmosphere with a thrilling feast of attacking rugby, scoring eight tries in the brilliant sunshine at Tregorrick Park.
Although showing glimpses of what was to come it took Saints 15 minutes to open the scoring with hooker Will Hancock driven over from a lineout close to the line with newly-signed fly half Dan Turner adding the extras. This score boosted the home team's confidence and straight from the restart a huge kick from Turner was collected by centre Paul Winterbottom who released winger Rob Orton who raced over the line and when the conversion went over St Austell were 14-0 up.
St Austell's forwards were winning a plentiful supply of ball and their backs were running from everywhere but strong St Just defence and the final passes going astray meant it wasn't until just before half time that full back Tate Richardson took a lovely inside pass to score under the posts, leaving just enough time for Winterbottom to scorch 40 metres down the touch line to score in the corner before the ref blew the whistle for the half way mark.
St Just battled hard in the second half and kept the ball close to their forwards but as soon as St Austell released their backs, holes started to appear in the visitors defence. On the hour wing Dan Netherton made ground down the flank and when he was tackled the ball was quickly spread to the opposite wing where centre Kieran Murphy unselfishly made the final pass for Rob Orton to collect his second try. By now Saints were in total control and replacement flanker Dan Hawkey who had already made several bursts, touched down under the posts leaving Turner to convert and make it 38-0.
The high ball was a dangerous weapon and when St Just failed to clear their line Saints full back Tate Richardson handed off his opposite number to score his second of the match and leave the score at 43-0. With time running out it looked as though Saints would fail to get the half century but another slick move on the final whistle allowed Winterbottom his second try when he cut inside the defence from 25 yards out. The impressive Danny Turner notched up the final points needed for the half century with the last kick of the game.
Saints 2nd VX (the Sinners) went down 29-21 to a last minute try against Newquay 2’s. Colts Steve Lane, Steve Howarth and Kieran Brown (who were all 17 last Sunday) all stood out on their senior debuts. The same three players were in action on Sunday when the Colts went down 14-25 to a very well drilled Wadebridge outfit. Luke Wright and Steve Lane scored tries for the home side.
Match report by Jack Rowe.