An attritional second half saw two evenly matched packs of forwards slogging it out on a sticky pitch with the ball rarely entering either 22m. A game of few clear cut opportunities so the league leaders were left to rue their failure to convert early territorial pressure into more points before succumbing to two late tries.

On a bitterly cold afternoon both sides were fired up and the opening exchanges were not for the faint hearted. Penryn were flying into the rucks from all angles and that lack of control provided a succession of early penalties for the Saints who eventually got in range of the posts. Scrum half Matt Shepherd took the three points to put the visitors ahead with ten minutes gone. The Saints were now in the ascendency and their pacey backline was starting to look threatening. The pressure told when prop Hugh Noott found a gap in the home defence to cruise over for an unconverted try. The home side replied with a score on their first meaningful sortie into the Saints’ 22. A series of pick and drives moved menacingly towards the try line but the Saints looked to have averted danger after lock Adam Pearce turned over the ball. However a horribly miscued clearance kick returned the initiative to the Borough who again started to grind their way forward. This time there was no reprieve and it was flanker George Jones who eventually rumbled over under the posts leaving fly half Matt Horton with a simple conversion. The visitors roared back and smart thinking by winger Marcus McCoan set Shepherd away with a quick lineout. With the defence disorganised swift hands by centre Ian Venner and flanker Adam Kellow put winger Alex Welland away to score in the corner. Shepherd’s touchline conversion made it 15-7 leaving the home support fearing the worst. A loss of patience amongst the Saints’ forwards provided Horton with a simple penalty to reduce the deficit. The Saints continued to press but try as they might they just could not fashion another opportunity against a resilient home defence to leave the half time score 15-10.

The second half proved a tense affair with the home side keeping play within the forwards and an increasingly sticky pitch making lateral movement difficult. The Saints were proving uncharacteristically error prone in loose play with a number of misplaced passes, giving away three interceptions when in promising positions. The game had become a forward orientated stalemate and it was hard to see where a score would come from as it entered the last ten minutes. So when the equalising try came it was like a bolt from the blue; the Saints were moving forward with purpose inside the Penryn half when the ball was spun wide to make use of an emerging overlap. Winger Alex Ducker gambled and intercepted the ball and blasted his way through the visitors’ half. For the first time in the second period the defence was pulled out of position, the home side still had work to do and shifted through several phases before the ball found its way to Ducker to finish off his good work with an unconverted try. The previously subdued home crowd were now in full voice but it was the Saints who went looking for a late winner. Penryn tails were up and they defended for their lives before forcing an error. The visitors were caught napping as they home side tapped a quick penalty to return the play back into the Saints’ danger zone. The Penryn forwards again ground out the hard yards and in time added on, the ball was pushed out wide. Welland hauled down danger man Ducker but to the consternation of the visiting support passed the ball from the ground despite being clearly tackled. Not that Jordan Rowe minded, with no whistle forthcoming he gleefully accepted the ball before going over in the corner for the winning try.

Tight games will always turn on key moments and the visitors will know they should have racked up more points during the first half. Penryn are a tough proposition at home and while the Saints’ lead was by such a narrow margin it always gave them hope. There were still some positives to be taken from the game, the forwards gained parity against a very physical and well drilled Penryn pack. Despite some uncharacteristic handling errors at key moments the backline still remained a threat and on another day would have added to the two tries scored. The Saints will now look to bounce back when they travel to 3rd placed Torquay Athletic (KO 2:30pm Saturday 26 January 2013).

Match Stats:

St Austell: Noott; Grigg; Martin; Pearce; McNally; Kellow; Jeffs; Howorth; Shepherd; Ashwin (Captain); Welland; Earp; Venner; McCoan; Murley
Replacements: Winterbottom; Tank; Rowe

St Austell:
Tries – Noott (17); Welland (26)
Cons – Shepherd
Pens – Shepherd
Drop Goal –

Penryn:
Tries – Jones (23); Drucker (72); Rowe (80)
Cons – Horton
Pens – Horton
Drop Goal –

Yellow Cards:
St Austell: Kellow (43) Penryn: None

Red Cards St Austell: None Penryn: None

Referee: Mr A Robinson (Cornwall RSS)

Saints Man of the Match: Adam Pearce