At half-time you really thought that the visitors would runaway with the game in the second half as they led 20-5. Nothing of the sort, as Redruth fought back with credit to lose in the end by 17-23, Esher’s relief at just booting the ball off the park at the end when they spurned a penalty chance to deny Redruth any points sums up just how hard a test they were given.
Redruth got off to the best possible start with a try after only 5 minutes from Lewis Vinnicombe, unfortunatly Brett Rule couldn’t add the conversion as the lack of a reliable goal kicker still haunts the Reds, hopefully Wihan Neethling will soon be back fit and able to display his renowned kicking ability.
Despite the fine start it was Esher who dominated for the rest of the half with plenty of pace and power, only some fine defence from the Reds preventing the visitors from scoring more than the two tries they did, with Sam Ulph Esher had a goal kicker to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
In the second half it was a different senario, towards the end Redruth looked the fitter team as they rocked the league leaders. Tries from Craig Bonds, nicely set up by Jamie Semmens on his Redruth debut, and Brett Stroud gave the Reds hope, though the talking point was the try by Gareth Evans disallowed for a double movement.
The Cornish All Blacks suffered their first defeat of the season at Richmond against London Scottish 42-13. This time it was the All Blacks who were on the receiving end of two quick tries before the break, that coupled with the sending off of centre Ed Lewsey on 58 minutes effectivly killed the game as a contest. Lewis Patterson scored Launceston’s try just before half-time with Tony Yapp adding the conversion and two penalties.
On Friday night we all listened to coverage from Castle Park as the Cornish Pirates took on Doncaster Knights and travelled back from Yorkshire with a 21-10 win. Skipper Blair Cowan scored both the Pirates’ tries with Rhys Jones adding a conversion and 3 penalties. Three wins from three is an impressive start from the Pirates as they will look to build this Sunday when they entertain Coventry at Camborne.
A reminder that Cornwall play the Royal Navy this Wednesday evening at Hayle RFC with a 7-30pm kick-off
