Camborne rounded off their pre-season games going down by just a solitary point to a very useful Cornish Pirates side 21-20 at the Rec on Wednesday evening.
With a little more luck the Cherry and Whites could have caused a major upset as they led 20- 7 as the game went into it’s closing stages. Two pushover tries from canny player-coach and replacement scrum-half Gavin Cattle diving in for the vital touches, plus a couple of good conversions from fly-half Bertie Hopkin saved the Championship side’s blushes.
Having gone behind to a try scored and converted by Hopkin, Camborne stormed back with converted tries scored by scrum-half Taron Peacock following a good mid-field break from winger Ben Drew, and flanker Neil Stanlieck as Camborne capitalised on an error from Cornish Pirates’ replacement full back Sam Marland, fly-half Dave Mankee added both conversions as well as a couple of penalties for a shock 20-7 lead until the Pirates’ late show.
Head coach Liam Chapple was very happy with his team performance. He said. “I am delighted with the effort and commitment from the Camborne lads tonight. The boys all piled into the ground having done a day’s work and went toe to toe with them for at least 70 minutes. The massive plus for me was the physicality of our boys, we’ve been building over the past six weeks, the boys stuck together as a team and their defensive effort was massive.
“I am not going to be too down hearted at losing the game at the end, Pirates sent on their two player coaches Gavin Cattle and Alan Paver and their experience got them over the line. We knew we were probably a stone a man lighter than them at scrum time, but I felt we more than held our own in the scrums and that our lineout went well, which could be down to Pirates head coach Ian Davies’ help. I cannot speak highly enough of him for all the help he has given me over the past two years.
Chapple however is making sure his players keep their feet firmly on the ground and don’t have any grand ideas. “All this will be for nothing if we don’t make the start we need when the league campaign gets under way. We have set our stall out and what really matters is where we are come the end of April. We have the players to do the job hopefully we can keep everyone injury free, but already we have picked a couple of injuries with Adam Lewarne and Tom Murray who will be out for a couple of weeks.
Camborne will train internally next week as they prepare for the visit of North Petherton on September 6th for their opening Tribute South West 1 West league fixture.
