The large crowd at Tregorrick Park witnessed the old cliche of a game of two halves, the first was a half of missed opportunities and needless penalties the second to coin another almost champagne rugby.
The match started with St Austell taking the play to Falmouth but good defence was preventing the Saints from making a crucial breakthrough, It was Falmoth capitalising on St Austell's referee interpreted indiscipline who made their way into the St Austell 22, the home sides defence initially withstood a ferocious onslaught but eventually gave the gap for Falmouth's Tom Spiller to score, the try excellently converted from far out by Matt Horton. This score fired the Saints up and an almost immediate response was a cleanly struck penalty from Scrum half Matt Shepherd. Battling against the wind the Saints could not turn possession into points and both sides were failing to gain the ascendancy. At half time the score stood at 3 -7.

Saints skipper Adam Kellow gave an inspirational half time talk then as any good skipper led from the front and the home side were awarded a further penalty which Shepherd stepped up to reduce the lead to a single point. The Saints were getting stronger as their better level of fitness allowed them to start controlling the match. On the sixtieth minute Flanker Darren Thompson who had played his heart out was replaced by Paul Winterbottom who with his first touch of the ball burst through Falmouth's defence to score the first of his hat trick of tries and take the lead to the home side, two of these tries were expertly converted and the Saints had the measure of their opponents. The only time Falmouth ventured into St Austell's half was by infringements from the home side only to have Winterbottom rip the ball off them on the try line and feed replacement Matt Couzens who broke though tackles sprinting 70 meters only to get caught short of the Falmouth 22. Winterbottom's third try was in the 77th minute and Kellow rallied the team to go for the bonus point, Shepherd punched his way through the Falmouth lines and fed lock Sean Haley who scored under the posts for an easy conversion, again by Shepherd. The man of the match was awarded to Prop Daniel Hambly who is rapidly coming of age.

St Austell
Tries, Winterbottom 3, Haley
Cons , Shephers 3
Pens, Shepherd 2

Falmouth
Try, Spiller
Con, Horton

Report by Phill Raddenbury