By Bill Hooper

Cornwall Women kick-off their Gill Burns Cup campaign this Sunday at Polson Bridge, Launceston against Dorset & Wilts Women, kick-off 1:30 pm.

Team:

15. Frankie Perry (Bude & Plymouth Albion), 14. Emma Stefanotti (Bude & Plymouth Albion), 13 Jo Roberts (Plymstock AO), 12. Lauren Chenoweth (Penryn), 11. Amy Bunt (Liskeard-Looe & Plymouth Albion), 10. Shannon Hocking (Plymstock AO), 9. Amy Warman (Liskeard-Looe & Plymouth Albion); 1.Michaella Roberts (Bristol Bears), 2. Zeta Penrose, 3.Clare Matthews (both Penryn), 4.Rachel Shackleton, 5.Alex Gallagher (both Bude), 6.Verity Waters, 7.Anna Clooke, 8. Jo Holden (all Plymouth Albion).

Replacements: 16. Mel Ruby (Bude), 17. Claire Hannigan, 18. Lucia Honey (both Plymstock AO), 19. Katie Bosustow (Penryn), 20, Rhian Roberts (Plymstock AO), 21. Ro Gomez (Penryn), 22. Megan Betts (Penzance)

Travelling Reserves: Leona Hughes, Megan Shroff (both Liskeard-Looe)   

Trelawny’s Army are delighted to again be one of the Women’s team main sponsors for 2019 and wish them every success.

Remaining Gill Burns Cup group fixture;

Sunday May 5th v Somerset Women @ Taunton RFC 2:30 pm

Following the Under 20 South West trials held at Keynsham RFC on Easter Sunday, three of the Cornish players attending the trials have been selected for the South West.

The players are Torin Clarke (Launceston) and both Jack Hodge and James Tucker (Redruth).

The lads will travel to Derbyshire for the final trial weekend from which the England Counties Under 20 squad to tour Romania will be picked.

Congratulations to all three and commiserations to the other Cornish lads who missed out.

I was delighted to be able to present Alex Ducker the Trelawny’s Army Supporters Club, Paul Bawden Cornwall man-of-the-match award, along with Cornwall RFU President Peter James.

TAMAR CUP

DEVON 13 – 28 CORNWALL

By Bill Hooper at the Brickfields

Three tries in the space of sixteen minutes at the beginning of the second half by mercurial Camborne winger Alex Ducker helped Cornwall retain the Tamar Cup, for an eighth year in succession, against old foes Devon at a balmy Brickfields yesterday evening.

Ducker a late call up, who ended his club season on Saturday by scoring four against Ivybridge to break David Weeks’ club record at Camborne, carried on his stellar form in the black and gold.

Apart from Ducker’s performance, there was plenty to enthuse about the Cornwall performance, ahead of more testing challenges in this season’s Bill Beaumont Cup, not least a return against Devon at Brixham on the 18^th May.

Devon had the better of the early exchanges taking a deserved lead thanks to a penalty from fly-half Tom Putt.

Full-back Charlie Briant then coughed up a golden chance for the home side with the line begging.

Cornwall began to get their maul working with skipper Ben Hilton, flanker Tony Whittle and Ducker all going close, before they got it right from a catch-and-drive with hooker Tommy-Lee Southworth dotting down from the drive, fly-half Fraser Honey split the uprights on his home turf.

Leading up to half-time Devon pressure saw a clever chip over the top from centre Mitch Pinkus with scrum-half Ben Watts winning the race to the touchdown for Putt to make the half-time score 10-7 to Devon.

Cornwall made four changes at half-time and re-jigged the backline, which saw full-back Matt Shepherd move to outside centre and Harvey Bell from wing to full-back.

It didn’t take long for the re-shuffle to work as Ducker arched his way to the line for the first of his tries with barely a minute on the clock, Shepherd kicking a fine touchline conversion.

Although Putt pulled three points back for Devon with a penalty, Cornwall were soon deep in the Devon twenty-two with the ball moved wide for Shepherd to serve up Ducker for his second try, once more Shepherd banged over the extras for some daylight on the scoreboard.

The Cornish forwards continued to drive hard working an overlap for Ducker to get his third try, needless to say Shepherd slotted his third conversion to effectively seal the result.

Devon put Cornwall under pressure in the closing stages but the Cornish defence was top draw and kept Devon at bay, which was as equally satisfying as the result.

Cornwall’s head coach Graham Dawe was satisfied with the performance on the night. “We have had some good training sessions prior to tonight and looked at a number of players. Some of the lads have put their hands up for selection in the Championship.

“I thought Tony Whittle had a good game for us and I thought Rupert Edwards and Dan Sanderson gave us good options in the second row along with Hilts.

“Rightly a lot of praise will go to the backs but you have to get your foundations right up front to get them good ball and we showed that.

“We shall have to see who’s available for the Kent game, hopefully we will have some of the lads from Redruth, Launceston and St. Ives also in the mix.”

Devon: Charlie Briant, Billy Pinkus, Rhys Palmer, Mitch Pinkus, Kieran Lee, Tom Putt, Ben Watts; Matt Dowick, Dean Avery, Charlie Tribble, Tim Coats, Karl Pearce, Tom McGratton, Ben King, Caleb Sampson.

Replacements: Gaz Walker, Aiden Taylor, Olly Schuster-Wood, Tom Bottoms, Dean Abrams, Peli Vea, Jacob Nash, Ryan Lee, Lewis Paterson, Connor Bedwell, Jake Neville, Jordan Watson, Jake Prophett-O’Neill, Josh Luxon.     

Devon scores: Try, Watts, Con, Putt, Pens, Putt 2

Cornwall: Matt Shepherd, Harvey Bell, Jon Dawe, Declan Matthews, Alex Ducker, Fraser Honey, Noah Nash; Dan Job, Tommy-Lee Southworth, Andrius Zacharovas, Ben Hilton (Capt), Rupert Edwards, Adam Hughes, Tony Whittle, Grant Randlesome.

Replacements: Hugh Noot, Miles Davey, Charlie Nicholson, Dan Sanderson, Lewis Wells, George Jones, Darren Livett, Taron Peacock, Fraser Nottle, Rhys Brownfield, Kyle Spear, Oliver Aggiss.

Cornwall scores: Tries, Southworth, Ducker 3, Cons, Honey, Shepherd 3

Referee: Astie Bolton (Gloucs RRS)

Trelawny’s Army, Paul Bawden Memorial, Cornwall man-of-the-match: Alex Ducker

Cornwall side selected to defend the Tamar Cup at Plymouth Albion tomorrow night.

There are seven who played in the corresponding fixture last season at St. Austell when Cornwall retained the Cup 24-12.

Kick-off at Brickfields is 7:30 pm with entry priced at £5, with under 16s getting free entry.  

CORNWALL

15. Matt Shepherd (Plymouth Albion)

14. Harvey Bell (Camborne)

13. Jon Dawe (Plymouth Albion)

12. Declan Matthews (Camborne)

11. Alex Ducker (Camborne)

10. Fraser Honey (Plymouth Albion)

9. Noah Nash (Barnstaple)

1. Dan Job (Lanner)

2. Tommy-Lee Southworth (Camborne)

3. Andrius Zacharovas (Camborne)

4. Ben Hilton (Barnstaple, Capt)  

5. Rupert Edwards (Wadebridge Camels)

6. Adam Hughes (Penryn)

7. Tony Whittle (Camborne)

8. Grant Randlesome (Penryn)

Replacements;

16. Hugh Noot (St. Austell)

17. Miles Davey (St. Austell)

18. Charlie Nicholson (St. Austell)

19. Dan Sanderson (Falmouth)

20. Lewis Wells (Saltash)

21. George Jones (Penryn)

22. Darren Livett (Wadebridge Camels)

23. Taron Peacock (Camborne)

24. Fraser Nottle (St. Austell)

25. Rhys Brownfield (Camborne)

26. Kyle Spear (Bude)

27. Oliver Aggiss (Liskeard-Looe)

Cornwall travel across the Tamar on Tuesday evening, 16th April, to take on Devon at Plymouth Albion’s Brickfields ground at 7:30 pm in this season’s Tamar Cup.

Cornwall will be looking to retain the Cup they defended successfully last season when they defeated Devon 24-12 at St. Austell.

Head coach Graham Dawe will once again be looking to field a competitive side running the rule over certain players with a view to the upcoming Bill Beaumont Cup campaign which begins against Kent on May 4th.

Cornwall Senior XV continue their preparation for the 2019 Bill Beaumont County Championship with the annual Tamar Cup game with Devon to be played at Brickfields Plymouth on Tuesday 16^th April with a 7.30pm kick off.

This comes at a time when clubs and players are battling for promotions, some through the play-offs, making a big demand and asking for a big commitment from the players. Terry Carter and CRFU selectors want to put out on to the pitch the best team and are very aware of what is being asked of our players due to RFU league schedules and the timing of the Championships but the determination of Cornish players to pull on the ‘black and gold’ and represent their county is still as evident as it always was during previous campaigns with some that have ended up at Twickenham.

Wednesday 10^th April is the last training session for coaches Graham Dawe and Marek Churcher to assemble the squad for the Tamar Cup. Captain Ben Hilton expects a busy evening as players go through the preparation with injured and unavailable for selection players on the touchline also making sure they are in the frame for Championship games selection. At the St Austell Brewery team building event senior players talked about the pride of being the best and of playing for Cornwall being special and an honour.

Cornwall RFU look forward to some healthy support from Trelawny’s Army on the night.

Team news will be released when available.  

CORNWALL RFU UNDER 20 – South West Trials.

Although the Cornwall Rugby Football Union (CRFU) 2019, Under 20 County Championship campaign has ended, eight of their players have been invited to the South West training day, being held on Easter Sunday, at Keynsham RFC.

This is the next stage for the players who will hope it will end with them earning selection for the England Counties Under 20s.  

CRFU President Peter James said “It is a great honour for these guys to have been selected due to their performances in the Jason Leonard Cup playing for Cornwall.”

The eight players represent four different Cornish clubs along with Bath University.  The majority come from Redruth with all four players having played for the National League 2 South team this season.

The players selected are;

Torin Clarke – Launceston

Connor Gilbert – Redruth

Jack Hodge – Redruth

Rory Mead – Bude

Mawgan Osborne – Penzance & Newlyn Colts

Jake Penprase – Bath University

Aaron Simmonds – Redruth

James Tucker – Redruth

Almost fifty players from eight counties have been invited to train at Keynsham RFC. From that day the South West selectors will pick a South West team, who will play against the other regions in Derbyshire on the weekend of 11 / 12 May.

The Cornwall U20 team manager Colin Hatch said; -”These eight guys are now up against the best players from our region this season, and will need to perform on the day to get selected for the South West team. We are all immensely proud of their achievement in being selected and representing Cornwall at this level. We would also like to thank Trelawny’s Army Supporters Club, who once again have assisted these young guys with their travelling expenses to this training session in Bristol.”

Trelawny’s Army are delighted to help with the cost of travel for the lads and wish them every success.

TRELAWNY’S ARMY CRFU COLTS CUP FINAL

ST. AUSTELL COLTS 6 – 23 PENZANCE & NEWYLN COLTS

Penzance & Newlyn Colts completed the first leg of a hoped for double by lifting the Colts Cup against St. Austell, reports Bill Hooper from Tregorrick Park.

They will have to wait to see if they can also land the Colts league.

The game was ended some six minutes from time by the referee following a neck injury to one of the Pirates’ colts however; the result had already been secured.

St. Austell, roared on by a vociferous home crowd, began brightly taking a 6-0 lead early on thanks to a couple of Ashley Gilder penalties.

Pirates weathered a sin-binning of their fly-half to strike back with a good try scored by No.8 Mawgan Osborne, converted by scrum-half Alistair Stacey to take a lead they would never relinquish.

Stacey then kicked a penalty before scoring and unconverted try near half-time following a strong run from flanker Oliver Mackenzie.

Despite some promising phases Saints were unable to get a crucial score, instead Pirates went further ahead with a try from skipper Toby Osborne.

Stacey kicked a penalty to put Pirates more than two scores ahead before the unfortunate injury brought the game to a premature end.

In the other finals played Launceston defeated Camborne 40-22 to win the Shield.

Saltash won 33-10 against Truro in the Plate and Newquay Hornets got the better of Penryn 38-10 in the Bowl.

A good day’s rugby and thanks must go to St. Austell RFC for their organisation and to Lee Maher from the Colts section for running the day.