CREDITON 47 - PENRYN 12

HAVING already been relegated, Penryn travelled to Crediton with other things on their mind, namely a Cornwall Cup Final against Camborne on Monday.

As a consequence they turned up with a somewhat depleted side but nonetheless made us work hard for our victory.

From our perspective the relegation issue had been resolved last week and this victory against Penryn left us 11 points clear of the drop.

The opening exchanges were evenly contested but we took the lead on 10 minutes with a penalty from fly-half Rob Milton, the lead was extended when winger Rowan Locke fielded a defensive clearance and made a superb break from half-way to within three metres of the line before offloading to full-back Matty Dayment who went over for the first try, converted by Milton.

The visitors hit back with a penalty from fly-half Rob Banks after Crediton were caught offside. On the half-hour home centre Tom Foan broke clear to score and five minutes later he added a second after an excellent handling move, Milton adding the extras.

Crediton were forced to concede penalties and as half-time approached, Banks had landed three of them to reduce the deficit to 10 points at the interval.

Crediton piled on the pressure early in the second half and won a scrum against the head and skipper Ben Wonnacott forced his way over for the bonus point score.

For a while it was one-way traffic and another break from Foan led to the next try as lock Cam Huxtable was in support and his offload to centre Jake Clarke was perfectly timed for try number five.

A quick tapped penalty from Wonnacott ended with the ball going out wide for winger Jake Weedon to go over. Penryn had their moments in the second half and only a couple of handling errors prevented them from reducing the arrears.

Ultimately, the direct running of the Crediton side began to tell and it was last year’s Colts’ lock Josh Pearce, on as replacement, who took advantage of a superb offload from flanker Chris Hooper to crash over.

Pearce was again in the action for the final try with another excellent bit of support play to double his tally for the game.

In fairness to Penryn, they battled throughout but were unable to match our firepower both in the backs and forwards.

Scorers: Crediton - Tries Foan (2), Pearce (2), Dayment, Wonnacott, Clarke and Weedon; Conversions Milton (2); Penalty Milton.

Paul Harris