Picture caption: (Front L-R) Denis Preece and Marc Bishop are joined by CRFU Representative rugby Chair, Chris Lea (back left) and Cornwall Rugby player, Rhys Brownfield.
Tribute extends ‘vital’ sponsorship deal with Cornwall Rugby
Cornwall Rugby Football Union (CRFU) has announced a three-year
sponsorship agreement with Tribute Cornish Pale Ale, renewing a successful
relationship between the two organisations that has run for more than seven
years.
The new deal starts with immediate effect and covers sponsorship of both
the men’s and women’s County Championship teams, and the annual Tribute
Cornwall Cup and Tribute Cornwall Clubs Cup, which have recently been won by
Wadebridge Camels RFC and Newquay Hornets RFC.
Denis Preece, Chairman of the Cornwall Rugby Football Union (CRFU) said:
“The CRFU is delighted with the continued support that St Austell Brewery
provides through Tribute. It’s vital to the progress of the county teams.
“We are also excited with the generous inclusion of a bonus payment if
the team reaches the County Championship final in Twickenham. It’s a great
incentive for the boys.”
Marc Bishop, Trade Marketing Manager at St Austell Brewery, said: “St
Austell Brewery is really pleased to continue its support of Cornish Rugby. Our
long-term partnership with the CRFU has been a key component in the growth of
Tribute, which is now one of the UK’s leading premium ales.
“We are very proud to work so closely with our friends at the CRFU, and
the wider rugby family in the county, to help them develop the game at all
levels.”
For more than twelve years Tribute Cornish Pale Ale has been a key
sponsor of the South West Rugby Football Union and the local leagues across
Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
With the conclusion of the play-offs last Saturday we now know our Cornish clubs that have secured promotion for next season.
Congratulations to Launceston RC on their fine win against Old Centralians on Saturday fighting back from 0-19 down to win 33-22, with player coach Ryan Westren scoring three tries!
Launceston are now back in the South West Premier next season and can look forward to some fine Cornish derbies against Camborne.
Good to see Penryn finally getting back to Western Counties West next season having won the Cornwall & Devon League, well deserved for all at the Borough, with some good derbies against near neighbours Falmouth to look forward to.
Well done also to Veor, who dominated Cornwall 1 this season and are back in the Cornwall & Devon League next season.
Congratulations to St. Agnes who took Cornwall 2 as well as winning the Tribute Clubs Plate.
They are joined by St. Just as runners-up in Cornwall 2.
A couple
of late tries from the visitors settled this entertaining opening round Gill
Burns Cup tie, reports Bill Hooper from Polson Bridge.
Cornwall began
well scoring an early try through flanker Anna Clooke.
Despite good
periods of possession, Cornwall couldn’t build on their early score.
Scrum-half Amy
Warman distributed well from scrums and rucks getting her line moving.
Former England Under
20 prop Michaella Roberts drove hard making some good ground.
Dorset &
Wilts struck back before half-time to level matters with a try to leave it
5-all at the break.
The visiors
took the lead in the second half before Cornwall centre Lauren Chenoweth, one
of Cornwall’s stand- out performers on the day, tied the scores with an
unconverted try.
It was nip and
tuck until Dorset & Wilts got a third try. Cornwall then lost the
influential Chenoweth to the bin.
The visitors
then went on to score two late tries, with one converted to seal the win.
All the Cornwall girls can be proud of their efforts. Special mention to Michaella Roberts and skipper Zeta Penrose also Verity Waters in the pack, whilst outside Amy Bunt, Emma Stefanotti and Frankie Perry caught the eye with some good runs.
Speaking after
the game Cornwall Women’s team manager Lorrie Osman was proud of the side’s
performance. She said. “I was delighted with the girls all round game today,
last season we lost heavily to them, so to hold them until the last ten minutes
was very encouraging.
“I look forward
to next Sunday’s game against Somerset at Taunton, the girls can travel with
belief that they can get the rewards they deserve.”
After the game
all the women plus some of last season’s squad received their player’s ties
from CRFU President Peter James.
The Women are
back in action this Sunday against Somerset at Taunton RFC, kick-off 2:30 pm.
Cornwall: Frankie Perry (Bude & Plymouth Albion), Emma Stefanotti (Bude & Plymouth Albion), Jo Roberts (Plymstock AO), Lauren Chenoweth (Penryn), Amy Bunt (Liskeard-Looe & Plymouth Albion), Shannon Hocking (Plymstock AO), Amy Warman (Liskeard-Looe & Plymouth Albion); Michaella Roberts (Bristol Bears), Zeta Penrose (Capt), Clare Matthews (both Penryn), Rachel Shackleton, Alex Gallagher (both Bude), Verity Waters, Anna Clooke, Jo Holden (all Plymouth Albion).
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.
Welcoming Yorkshire Carnegie to the Mennaye Field, the Cornish Pirates recorded a thoroughly deserved and eagerly sought-after win in what was their final Greene King IPA Championship home match of the season, reports Phil Westren.
In a precarious position at the start
of the season, under the direction of Chris Stirling the strengthened opponents
had climbed to sixth in the league table, just one place below the still
fifth-placed Pirates.
The return of scrum-half Alex Day
was the one change in the Pirates backs from the side that started at London
Scottish last time out, whilst in the forwards Danny Cutmore took the place of
an injured Toby Freeman in the second-row and John Stevens was named to wear
the number ‘7’ shirt.
After all present had observed an
impeccable minute’s silence in respect of innocent victims earlier killed or
injured at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, and also not forgetting journalist
Lyra McKee who was tragically murdered during Easter in Northern Ireland, on an
otherwise perfect afternoon the Pirates also got off to a perfect start.
Young full-back AJ Cant opened the
scoring in just the first minute, his effort at the Newlyn gate corner well
converted by fly-half Javier Rojas Alvarez.
Yorkshire Carnegie, however, were
quick to respond, with full-back Chris Elder firing his penalty strike through
the Penzance posts.
Although Elder soon pulled a
long-range penalty attempt to the left of the posts, the visitors soon took the
lead for the first time after some potent forward play ended with hooker Dylan
Donnellan identified as a try-scorer.
A successful Rojas Alvarez penalty
saw the Pirates back in front, but when they looked to attack down the left an
error gifted Elder a 45-metres run in for a try that he also converted.
A second Rojas Alvarez penalty
narrowed the deficit to just two points, but after home flanker Matt Bolwell
was yellow-carded ‘Carnegie’ scored a converted try through winger Myles
Thoroughgood. On the stroke of half-time it left the scoreline reading 13-22.
The Pirates had played some
industrious rugby and the line-out was functioning well. At scrum time,
however, they had been put under pressure.
Whistle blown to start the second
period it was not long before the still 14-man Pirates were back into the
match. No. 8 Tom Duncan made a telling intercept, and with speedster Robin
Wedlake lending support the wing crossed for his tenth Championship try of the
season. Replacement fly-half Will Cargill, on for the injured Rojas Alvarez,
landed the conversion.
Several Pirates were having
impressive games, and none more so than hooker and man-of-the-match Dan Frost,
who four minutes later showed immense grit and strength to score a converted
try at the Penzance posts.
The Pirates went down to 14 men for a
second time in the match when Duncan was sin-binned and during his absence
Chris Stirling’s side got back in front with a converted try scored at the old
Western National corner by wing Elijah Niko.
In what was proving as hot a contest
on the field as the weather enjoyed off it, the pendulum swung back to the
Pirates when, on about the hour mark, Cargill kicked a penalty to again give
the Pirates a lead.
By now there was a sense that with
the spirit displayed by the Pirates they genuinely looked the likely winners,
which of course proved to be the case. Although feeling unfortunate to lose a
third player of the afternoon to the sin bin when Cant was yellow-carded,
following a late red card shown visiting replacement hooker Joe Buckle the
result was wrapped up thanks to a second penalty kicked by Cargill.
To survive three sin-binnings
against opponents who were striving to build on a five-game winning run was
truly commendable and the players deserved to enjoy their post-match
celebrations. Along with their supporters, they surely did.
Cornish Pirates’ co-coach Alan Paver
had also envisaged the game being exciting and positive to overall make for
smashing occasion, and he was proved right.
Hey, you can’t beat the return of
that good old – good feel factor!
Cornish Pirates: 15 AJ Cant, 14 Robin Wedlake, 13 Rory Parata (Dan Koster 64), 12 Callum
Patterson, 11 Alex O’Meara, 10 Javier Rojas Alvarez (Will Cargill 38), 9 Alex
Day (Alex Schwarz 61); 1 Marlen Walker (Jack Andrew 61), 2 Dan Frost, 3 Jack
Owlett, 4 Danny Cutmore, 5 Brett Beukeboom (c), 6 Matt Bolwell, 7 John Stevens
(Dan Lee 64), 8 Tom Duncan.
Replacements (not used): Tom Concu, Jake Clemson.
Yellow cards: Bolwell, Duncan, Cant.
Yorkshire Carnegie: 15 Chris Elder, 14 Myles Thoroughgood, 13 Andy Forsyth, 12 Pete Lucock
(George Watkins 44), 11 Elijah Niko, 10 Jade Te Rure (Tom Bullough 65), 9 Sam
Wolstenholme; 1 Tom Hill (Andrew Foster 65), 2 Dylan Donnellan (Joe Buckle 61),
3 Craig Mitchell, 4 Fa’atiga Lemalu, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Richard Mayhew (Josh
Bainbridge 54), 7 Lewis Wilson, 8 Dan Temm.
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.
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 18th 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.
Ben Hilton Cornwall (Barnstaple) presented the Tamar Cup by Devon RFU President Treve Mitchell. – Photo
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.
