St Austell made it a January clean sweep with their fourth bonus point win of the month but “Oh Boy” they were given a hard time by Bridgwater & Albion. The high flying Saints struggled to contain a stubborn Bridge side who gave a committed and determined display that belied their basement club status. An inspired performance from the home forwards saw five tries shared across the Bridge front row union to score the highest points total against the Saints since October 2019 when Wadebridge Camels weighed in with 40. Despite this a much-changed Saints side found a way to win, and the Cornishmen deserve great credit for not panicking and by ruthlessly taking their opportunities, they came away from Somerset with their grip on first place firmly intact.

On a cold but dry day the Saints got off to a lacklustre start allowing the home side to apply the early pressure. The Saints defence withstood a couple of menacing driving mauls, and a penalty enabled them to create a lineout platform just outside the home 22. Quick ball off the top from Mark Vian and even quicker hands across the back line saw Dan Tyrrell receive the pass just outside the 22 on the main stand side. With space to work in, the jet-healed winger attacked his opposite number at pace before side stepping the despairing tackler to score (0-7). Two minutes later the Saints scored what will undoubtedly be one of the contenders for their try of the season. Full back Matt Shepherd received the ball on the Bridge 40m and then proceeded to run through the home forwards like a demented Michael Flatley at an Irish Cèilidh leaving all manner of props and locks on their backsides. Shep was finally taken down on the home 5m only for the supporting Tom Daniel, outstanding on his call up from the Sinners, to take the ball on to just short of the try line. With the ball recycled in a flash, fly-half Chris Ashwin was given the freedom of College Way for the simplest of touch downs (0-12).

Any thoughts that this would see the visitors go on to rack up another unaccosted big score were soon dispelled. First fly-half Tom Steer knocked over a long-range penalty from 45m to get the first home points of the afternoon (3-12). With the half-hour mark approaching Bridge secured a lineout on the Saints 5m, and a well executed catch and drive was rounded-off by prop Matt Ransom (10-12). The visitors responded well with a superb counterattack when a long Bridge kick failed to find touch in the Saints 22. Dan Tyrrell gathered the ball, shaped to kick and then dummied through the first-up chasers. Sprinting to the 40m he timed the off-load to the supporting Shep to perfection bravely taking a heavy tackle for his trouble. The Saints full-back had his Irish reel shoes tied on again as he danced his way through the Bridge half twice using the hard running Sam Parsons as a decoy to score in the corner (10-17). The Saints got the bonus point a few minutes later when the pack drove a maul in-field to create a blindside alley for winger Caven Boyer to stroll in for the fourth try after good work by scrum half CJ Boyce (10-24). With halftime approaching indiscipline at the breakdown and an excellent kick by Tom Steer gave Bridge a 15m lineout. The Saints looked to have contained the catch and drive, but the Bridge forwards did extremely well to maintain momentum with a series of pick and goes with prop Graham Slorance eventually crashing over (17-24).

The Saints started the second half with purpose to dominate the third quarter at last playing their high tempo game. A line-out on the Bridge 22 allowed centre Ben Plummer to cut through on a diagonal to exploit the space created by an earlier yellow card for the Bridge full-back (17-29). The Saints were soon threatening again with a driving maul ebbing forward. CJ Boyce was quick to note that the home side were committing more defenders to stem the tide so released the ball to Sam Parsons who deftly passed to the onrushing Shep to crash over (17-36). From the restart the Saints launched another counterattack from inside their 22 with ball sprayed along the backline. The Scourge of Somerset Dan Tyrrell proceeded to outpace, side-step or simply run thorough the beleaguered home defence, before off-loading to the hard running Sam Parsons to stroll in for a try on the hour mark (17-43).

The visitors were forced into a number of changes with the exploits of January starting to take their toll and with Matt Shepherd given 10 minutes on the naughty step for not releasing, Bridge were quick to take advantage of the disruption. The sharp-witted prop Graham Slorance spotted a chink of light to take a tap-penalty and burrow over with just 10 minutes remaining (24-43). The affronted Saints responded with superb combination play from their back row trio. Number eight Rory Jago ploughed a furrow through the Bridge defence before offloading to supporting openside Cam Taylor. The powerhouse seven took play from the 10m into the home 22m before the baton was passed to Hector Bright. It took three defenders to deny the Saints blindside, but the ball was soon unleashed again by CJ Boyce back to Cam Taylor and onward to Max Bullen to skilfully finish under the posts (24-50).

With eight minutes remaining that really should have been that, but the Saints were punished for letting their thoughts drifts towards the journey home. Bridge executed another thunderous catch and drive to allow prop Matt Ransom to secure the home bonus point (29-50). A disagreement over a high tackle decision was rightly punished by the mark being advanced 10m by the Referee allowing Tom Steer to gleefully slot the penalty into the Clubhouse corner. With almost the entire Bridge team joining the drive the Saints did well to desperately hold on but eventually hooker Jordan Buller twisted his way over for a try. Tom Steer’s conversion brought the game to an end to make the final score 36-50.

It says much about the Saints this season that they came off the field disappointed with a bonus point win on the road. With five changes to the starting line-up it took time for the unfamiliar combinations to acclimatise but they clicked superbly in the opening 20 minutes of the second-half. Bridge showed tremendous spirit and deserve great credit for never taking a backward step to score five tries against the best defence in the league. For the Saints it is a case of job done in first raft of games in 2023, a maximum 20 points from four games in January to give a 17 point lead at the top of the league.

There is a well-deserved Saturday off next weekend, a chance to rest some aching bodies ahead of a tough February programme. The next game is at home on Saturday 11th February 2023, when they welcome Chard to Tregorrick (kick-off at 2:30pm).

Saints Star Man: Dan Tyrrell – There were excellent individual performances in a patchy team display. Sinners Vice-Captain Tom Daniel did well in his call-up to the Saints, scrum-half CJ Boyce kept encouraging the Saints forwards who struggled at times to contain a rumbustious Bridge eight. Sam Parsons was at his Lamborghini best and Matthew Shepherd did more slaloms than a Ski Sunday compilation. However Dan Tyrrell was simply outstanding, combining pace, power and guile in equal measure and the Bridge defence just could not contain the Saints’ pocket battleship.

Saints
1 Matt Boothby; 2 Miles Davey; 3 Charlie Nicholson; 4 Mark Vian (Capt.); 5 Tom Daniel; 6 Rob Jeffs; 7 Cam Taylor; 8 Rory Jago; 9 CJ Boyce; 10 Chris Ashwin; 11 Dan Tyrrell; 12 Ben Plummer 13 Sam Parsons; 14; Cavan Boyer; 15 Matt Shepherd

Reps (All used):
Brandon Haque; Max Bullen; Hector Bright

St Austell:
Tries – Dan Tyrell (12); Chris Ashwin (14); Matt Shepherd (32; 58); Cavan Boyer (36); Ben Plummer (52); Sam Parsons (60); Max Bullen (72)
Cons – Matt Shepherd (12, 36; 58; 60); Chris Ashwin (72)
Pens –
Drop Goal –

Bridgwater & Albion:
Tries – Matt Ransom (26; 74); Graham Slorance (39, 70); Jordan Buller (80)
Cons – Tom Steer (26; 39; 70; 80)
Pens – Tom Steer (3)
Drop Goal –

Yellow Cards:
St Austell: Matt Shepherd (66)
Bridgwater & Albion: Will Kerry (50)

Red Cards:
St Austell: None
Bridgwater & Albion: None