Match Preview

“Can't say I've ever been too fond of beginnings, myself. Messy little things. Give me a good ending anytime. You know where you are with an ending.”

Neil Gaiman, ‘The Kindly Ones’

Think back to the first fixture we played and messy was the word. Approximately 80 ladies attended ‘Ladies Day’. They had a ball of a time in the Lounge Bar as they attempted to drown themselves in Pimms and Prosecco. The sun was out and Saints delivered an opening day win against Paignton by 15-6. Lets hope we get a good ending to this final weekend of the 2018/19 season.

The ending to this season is as it started except the fortunes of these two sides differ greatly. The Saints will finish 4th in WCW. They had a superb first half of the season and returned from the festive break to stun Sidmouth and their expectant New Years crowd on their own turf. Then unavailability and narrow defeats took their toll. No defeat suffered by the Saints had a greater than 7 points difference in the scores. Whilst that is a significant statistic it doesn’t make the defeats any easier to swallow for the dedicated and tight knit squad that is the St Austell Saints. Meanwhile Paignton are relegated…They have some close run results, one with only a points difference but having played 25, won 6, drawn 1 and lost 18 their 35 points accrued are now not enough to keep them in WCW.

Saints are now played 25, won 16, drawn 2 and lost 7. This puts them on 89 points. With Wellington being on 95 in 3rd this is where we will finish, in 4th place.

Last Saturday, if you were not at Tregorrick Park, you missed a complete display of dominant rugby over 95% of the 80 minutes. The crowd was swelled and in noisily expectant mood. As the Saints delivered on the first half by adding 25 points to nil you could feel the party atmosphere breaking out in the stands as the sun crept around the roof to warm up everyone and increase the volume. It ended 39-5 and an after-match ‘roister’ was held, not seen in such participation levels, size and duration, for some years in the Clubhouse afterwards.

Now we return to Paignton and we don’t know when we’ll see them again after this fixture. We hope they do well and bounce back up and the best of luck to Paignton RFC in that endeavour.

We turn, for the last time this season, to Head Coach Kyle Marriott for some words from the Saints camp: “We reach the final game of the season on the back of an excellent weekend at Tregorrick. Last weekend we were able to put a quality performance together in front of a bumper home crowd. A different prospect this week end away to Paignton who challenged us greatly at the beginning of the season. We hope to finish the season in style and back up the work we did last week. COYS!”

The Saints are on the Coach this week and there is a train party going as well led by Al Cummins. Contact Miles or Al for details if you fancy a day out to Paignton.

I sign off now as match previewer for this season. If anyone else would like to have a go at this next season please get in touch. If you love rugby and like to muse about the possibilities then it’s a great role to have and there are few constraints in the production of these pieces. It involves zero travelling and just some of your time. Let me know.

For the last time in the 2018-19 season…

Yours in Rugby

Ian Grantham
P.S. Come to the Senior Players end of season awards party! Supporters are very welcome and its going to be a fun night…see below.

Senior Players Awards Night – Friday 10th May in ‘The Seahorse’ at Pentewan Sands. A 3-course meal and live music from the Mighty Off-Beats will accompany Senior player and other awards. More details are HERE including bank transfer details. Tickets at £30 each will be limited for what promises to be a fantastic night. Get them early to avoid disappointment from Miles Davey or ask any of the senior squad players. You can also pay cash or cheque over the bar and get a receipt from the staff to give to Miles. UPDATE - TICKETS ARE NOW SHIFTING SO GET YOURS SOON!

100 club –You can still join…Your number will be assigned in the next month’s draw. Feeding funds into purely rugby activities is central to our strategy to grow the whole club, providing help to the people who volunteer at Tregorrick to get qualified and to buy equipment when needed. If we don’t invest in ourselves we won’t progress! The fund that we are placing the money in is explained HERE. The form is available around the club in wall holders. Please get behind this…3 cash prizes a month and it needs your support!