PHOTOS By Simon Bryant Iktis photo
Cornwall took a first step in this season’s Under 20 County Championship with an impressive win over their conquerors in last season’s quarter-finals with a bonus point win at Camborne.
That defeat last March by 50-19 hurt and it was a wound that skipper Todd Prisk wanted to put right this time round. “They came down here last season and embarrassed us, it’s something I have wanted to put right and today it was pleasing to put the record straight and get their monkey off our backs.
“Preparation has been good this season, our sessions at Truro College have been good the players have brought into the ethos the coaching and support staff have really made things good for us.
“We felt we were good enough and so it showed with our great start and we just seemed to build on it. We stuck to our game plan and kept the tempo high.
“We had little blip in the second half when we lost two players to the bin but that seemed to make us stronger and we rode the storm.
Photo – Cornwall skipper Todd Prisk with Dan Rutter in support
“I felt that some of the tries we scored today were real quality, Neil Stanleick and Locryn Williams carried great ball with Dan Rutter putting us in good field postions, hopefully we will take this into our next game against Devon in January.
Playing up the slope first half Cornwall got off to a great start with an early try. A penalty kicked to the top corner by Rutter saw the catch-and-drive and when the ball was moved wide centre Rhys Brownfield carved through to score.
The Pirates Amateurs player was on target soon after with a penalty success to put Cornwall 10-0 up.
Photo – Rhys Brownfield dots down Cornwall 1st try
Cornwall continued to dominate the first quarter and it was no surprise that they increased their lead when a Rutter kick was half charged down but fell into the arms of winger Jake Woodward who scored Cornwall’s second try with Brownfield again on the money with the extras.
Gloucestershire made a couple of changes in their front row which helped steady the ship and they got back into the game with a try from centre Tom Francis with fly-half Jack Sterry making it a seven point score to leave the score at halftime 17-7 to the black and golds.
Cornwall suffered an early blow in the second half when scrum-half Zac Noeda was yellow-carded following the home side’s repeat infringements.
The Cornish lads carried on taking the game to the visitors with a storming run from Stanleick seeing the No.8 held up over the line.
From the five-metre scrum, Rutter who had moved to scrum-half, scampered over in the scoreboard corner for an unconverted try.
Photo – hooker Locryn Williams makes good ground
Cornwall were then briefly down to thirteen men as lock Dan Marsh was yellow carded for a tip tackle, however Cornwall scored another try as the game entered the final quarter, a good run by hooker Locryn Williams saw the ball moved wide for replacement Tom Sandercock to score another unconverted in the West Bank corner.
There was further Cornish joy as man-of-the-match Stanleick made another rbreak with Woodward in support to put centre Jack Simmons in for Cornwall’s fifth try with Brownfield adding the conversion for a 34-7 lead.
Gloucestershire, as you would expect, didn’t let their heads drop and came back in final stages to score a couple of tries through replacements Tom Davies and Ewan Bulger both converted by Francis to leave Cornwall 34-21 victors.
Next up for Cornwall, Devon at Ivybridge, on Sunday 25th January.
Cornwall 34 pts
Tries – Brownfield, Woodward, Rutter, Sandercock, Simmons, Conversions – Brownfield (3), Penalty – Brownfield
Yellow Cards – Noeda (44), Marsh (52)
Gloucestershire 21 pts
Tries – Francis, Davies Bulger, Conversions – Sterry, Francis (2)
Cornwall : T Eley, L Thomas (both Truro), J Simmons (Hartpury Coll), R Brownfield (Pirates Ams), J Woodward (Wadebridge Camels), D Rutter (Redruth), Z Noeda; J Martin (both Truro), L Williams (St Austell), J Tyack (Redruth), T Prisk (Redruth, capt), D Marsh (Truro), A Hughes (Penryn), J Haines (Cornish All Blacks), N Stanleick (Camborne).
Replacements: S Furse (Newquay Hornets) for Hughes 47, R Stevens (Hayle) for Martin 54, T Sandercock (Cornish All Blacks) for Noeda 58, T Pellow (Penryn) for Haines 67, J Tyler (Penzance-Newlyn Colts) for Thomas 67, T-L Southworth (Redruth) for Tyack 73. Not used: O Williams (Falmouth).
Referee Zerran Bell (Devon RRS)
Crowd: 450
Cornwall-man-of-the-match: Neil Stanleick carried, carried, carried all day long, tremendous performance from the Camborne back rower.