St Austell will have learned much from this encounter with local rivals Roseland, the game was tighter than the score reflects. Roseland started well but early pressure was absorbed by the Saints defence. As soon as play went into the opposition half No 8, Paul Winterbottom, forced his way through tacklers to score in the 7th Minute, the conversion was missed but still the Saints were struggling to press this early advantage. Roseland countered and a well struck penalty kick from Tom Day reduced the deficit to two points.

Both sides were attacking each other relentlessly, hard to imagine that this was an almost top versus bottom encounter. In the 28th minute, Saints Scrum Half Matt Shepherd stepped up to land a penalty to slightly reduce the pressure. The Saints now rallied and started to use the width of the pitch, the forwards making good ground into the opposition 22. Over complication of this advantage in the ¾ line meant several chances of scoring went astray until Wing Alex Welland screamed his way through Roselands defence in the 33rd minute to touch down in flamboyant style. At Half time the score a tentative 13-3 to the Saints.

The second half opened with a scoring opportunity for the Saints, some excellent cohesion between the forwards and backs took the Saints straight down to Roseland’s line, and clever work by the Saints skipper Andy Ashwin created a gap for Centre Sam Rhodes to run a perfect line in to increase the lead to 18-3. The home forwards then raised their efforts further to turn the screw on their opposition and Paul Winterbottom outdid the whole Roseland defence to score the try of the match, Shepherd dutifully converted this and a healthy 25-3 lead established with 47mins on the clock.

Roseland now stepped up a gear and nearly 30 minutes of play around the midfield with some fearsome tackling demonstrations were enjoyed by the large crowd. with 5 minutes left the floodgates opened Full Back Callum Evison finished off a well structured move from the Saints backline, Shepherd converted. Alex Welland again finishing with both strength and style and finally Paul Winterbottom receiving the ball beyond St Austell’s 10 meter line again outstripped an entire defence, shrugging off would be tacklers sealed the win and achieved his hat trick.

The Saints are away to an Improving Saltash next Saturday bring on the Saints "Massive".

Phill Raddenbury
Chairman & 1XV Manager
St Austell RFC