Saints suffer away day blues

Report by Phill Raddenbury

In a game not to be remembered for the quality of the rugby, it turned out to be a great lesson in what the young Saints need to do on their travels in what is shaping up to be a highly competitive league this season. There will be no easy games and the results for all sides so far show it will be a mixed bag.

You could tell almost from the start that it was not going to be a Saints day, a kick from the home side to clear their line was not cleanly gathered putting St Austell under extreme pressure. A penalty awarded against the Saints was kicked for position rather than posts making a true statement of intent by Kingsbridge. The next 5 minutes were spent encamped on the Saints’ try line and it took a try saving turnover from the mercurial Sid Venner to win a penalty to ease the pressure. St Austell lost the line out and then gave award a penalty which enabled Kingsbridge to claim the 3 points with George Banfield making the kick.

Saints secured their lines and started to put some useful phases together however the final touch was letting them down and keeping hold of the ball was proving to be a problem. A penalty was awarded to the Saints but missed by Andy Ashwin in the 11th minute and the follow up in play offered a similar missed opportunity for Banfield at the other end. This is where it started to go completely wrong for the young Saints as Ben Glover gathered a poor restart and scythed his way through the defence to score.

St Austell kept plugging away at the home side who would be the first to admit that with ball in hand the Saints looked dangerous but they lacked the cohesion and final penetration to finish off some promise approach play. The Saints renaissance proved short lived with players getting isolated am injuries started to their toll. Confidence in the set piece began to wane and the home side took advantage of this to exert territorial control. Second row Matt Allen made a fine run through desperate defence to score under the posts making an easy conversion for Banfield making is 15-
Half Time 15-0

The second half started brightly for the Saints and they were certainly in the ascendency, now inconsistency from the scrums by both teams created a stream of penalties, this frustration edged into the play and Kingsbridge coped with the interference far better than the visitors.
Further misery was piled on the Saints when a collective groan from Saints travelling support indicated not just an injury to Sid Venner but also a yellow card for his effort. A back row player infringing? Never! We will all be hoping for a speedy recovery.

Kingsbridge made the most of the disruption and wing Joe Banfield added to the tally. Saints were holding on but with the game already out of sight and the team pulled out of shape heads started to drop. Kingsbridge added gloss to the score line with two late converted scores by Jake Knight and Ben Newman finishing off a good afternoon’s work for the home side.

The final Score of 34-0 perhaps was a little harsh on the Saints but they will need to rally this week to get back to winning ways before facing Cullompton at Tregorrick (Saturday 19 September 2015 3pm). The Cornishmen must rediscover the opening day cohesion and confidence to ensure their efforts are rewarded. It was not all bad news, there was a welcome return to action for Adam Kellow and the travelling Saints’ Massive would have been heartened by the fact that this developing Saints side look very fast going forward. One thing is for sure, it is going to be an exciting season at Tregorrick!

Match Stats:

St Austell:
1 Peter Rowe; 2 Miles Davey (Capt.); 3 Kyle Gallacher; 4 Josh Pearce; 5 Mark Vian; 6 Jack Grigg; 7 Ian Venner; 8 Paul Winterbottom; 9 Callum Hayne; 10 Andy Ashwin; 11 Ben Chenoweth; 12 Sam Rhodes; 13 James Martin; 14 Konnor Ewudzi; 15 Cavan Boyer

Reps:
Max Duggan; Darren Pellow; Adam Kellow