The Colts had already got the party started in the earlier kick off when the youngsters beat Redruth 20-0 to secure a place in next week’s Colts County Final. The Seniors then completed a twelve try demolition of Tiverton with an exhilarating performance that featured some fantastic phases of play to the delight of the raucous home support.
Played in glorious sunshine under clear blue skies, the home side were 10-0 up within two minutes. Liam Freeman kicked a penalty after an obstruction at the kick off and the diminutive scrum half Dan Jane leapt like a salmon out of a babbling brook to grab a bouncing ball to touchdown. Tiverton though proved no slouches and quickly took advantage when full back Toby Robinson and winger Cavan Boyer were both caught at the bottom of the ruck. A clever box kick allowed winger James Newman a clear run to the line, converted by Jimmy Atkins (10-7). The Saints continued to press and a line out catch and drive provided the platform for prop Hugh Noott to crash over (17-7). Tiverton were enjoying parity at the scrum and lineout but there were early signs that they were begining to struggle to contain the Saints when the home side upped the tempo of their attacks. A Liam Freeman penalty was quickly followed by a Toby Robinson try after a surging run from Cornwall U20 flanker Max Duggan (27-7). Former Exeter Chiefs and Plymouth Albion lock Tom Skelding showed his class with a superb two handed catch at the back of 5m lineout before twisting and somehow reaching the try line for a score (27-12). With half time looming the Saints went through the gears with Toby Robinson grabbing his second try and then Hugh Noott finished off a 10 phase move to complete his brace (39-12). The Mother Of All Props is on a rich vein of form in 2017 and scored 4 tries in under a week to bring his tally up to 8 for the season.
The third quarter was all St Austell with a beleaguered looking Tiverton seemingly having no answer to the rampant home side. Max Duggan set the tone for the second half after a well worked move saw him charge over at the posts (46-12). Even when Tivvy were able to put some phases together they were proved susceptible to the counter attack with Adam Kellow leading the charge from the halfway line (53-12). The mesmerising waves of attacks continued almost unabated and just after the hour mark Ben Chenoweth, Max Duggan, Jack Nelson and completing his hattrick Toby Robinson had all touched down. A brace of conversions from Liam Freeman moved the scoreboard to 77-12 with 15 minutes remaining. Tiverton to their credit went in search of some consolation and with the home side dropping their energy levels the visitors were able to exert some pressure in the Saints 22. Winger Cavan Boyer intercepted a pass before slipping the ball to lock Tony Knight who found his inner Shergar to gallop 80m to score under the posts (84-12). With that Adam Pearce left the field for the last time and the Tregorrick faithful rose as one to give Colossus Lock a richly deserved standing ovation in recognition of his many years of distinguished service in the boiler room of the Saints’ pack. The visitors finally got a reward for their endeavours with a try for Adam Preece in time added on to make the final score 84-19.
A brilliant performance brought the curtain down on a historic season as the Saints finally got their hands on the County Cup. The Saints have been in fantastic form in recent months winning 8 from their last 10 games to finish 2016-17 in 7th place. The two defeats came on the road at the hands of Champions Exeter University and runners up Cullompton and in both of those reversals the Saints pushed their high-flying rivals hard. With another exciting crop of youngsters graduating from the Colts next season the future looks extremely bright for St Austell.
1 Hugh Noott; 2 Miles Davey (Capt.); 3 Charlie Nicholson; 4 Adam Kellow; 5 Adam Pearce; 6 Jack Nelson; 7 Ian Venner; 8 Max Duggan; 9 Dan Jane; 10 Chris Ashwin; 11 Cavan Boyer; 12 Liam Freeman 13 Andy Ashwin; 14 Ben Chenoweth; 15 Toby Robinson
Reps (All used):
Tony Knight; Mark Martin; CJ Boyce
St Austell:
Tries – Dan Jane (2); Hugh Noott (15, 39); Toby Robinson (27; 38; 65); Max Duggan (47; 60); Adam Kellow (51); Ben Chenoweth (52); Jack Nelson (63); Tony Knight (74)
Cons – Liam Freeman (2, 15, 27, 39, 47, 51, 52, 60, 74)
Pens – Liam Freeman (1, 43)
Drop Goal –
Tiverton:
Tries – James Newman (5); Tom Skelding (31)
Cons – Jimmy Atkins (5)
Pens –
Drop Goal –
Yellow Cards:
St Austell: Adam Pearce (20)
Tiverton: None
Red Cards:
St Austell: None
Tiverton: None