Cool win on a bitterly cold afternoon.

Saturday 27th February 2016
Camelford 11 Stithians 3.

On this Six Nations weekend both teams had lost key personnel to the arm chair or to Twickenham. What promised to be a close encounter proved to be the case in a game where forward domination was crucial.
With an icy cold wind behind them Stithians made the most of the first 10 minutes of the first half and cleverly kept Camelford in their own 22 with some fine positional kicking. With Camelford taking a while to settle they gave away their first penalty after 7 minutes but Strithians missed the kick letting the Ford of the hook. Ten minutes later the Ford infringed again only 18 meters from their line. This time Stithians took the lead with this easy kick.
This was the injection of energy Camelford needed and they quickly took control of this half. Camelford began to open the game up and ran the ball well into Stithians territory. Cold hands clearly had an effect as a number of handling errors prevented them from getting over the white wash for a try. The pressure took its toll on the Stithians gallant defence and they conceded a penalty 30 metres out. Rich Jasper coolly slotted this kick to bring the scores level. Camelford maintained the pressure playing against the wind but could not finish off a number of excellent incursions so the half finished at 3 all.
With the wind behind them, which was becoming increasingly cold, Camelford set about pinning Stithians in their own half. To their credit Stithians coped well with some of the deep kicking from Ian Worsnip , Matt Dyson and Rich Jasper. Their Full Back had a busy time but was able to push Camelford back on a number of occasions. The Camelford forwards began to turn the screw with some excellent counter rucking. This resulted in another opportunity for Rich Jasper seven minutes into this half. He successfully converted the penalty from some 20 metres.
There was a long period of intense pressure by the home side but they were guilty of not being able to turn this pressure into points. To both temas credit they were attempting to play the game as it should be; three quarters running the ball and forwards trying to set up good platforms. It was good for the cold spectators and eventually led to a great try for Camelford on 60 minutes. Rich Jasper finished off a great backs move which was possible due to a fantastic counter maul by the Ford's pack. He missed his conversion but had now accumulated a personal 11 points total.
Stithians were not about to let this game die and worked hard to escape their half of the field. For a while Camelford became a touch sloppy and gave away a number of silly penalties. this gave Stithians confidence and they began to apply the pressure. Camelford's defence was up for the challenge and Stithians were, themselves, forced into errors in attack. Great counter attacking skills by the Ford's evergreen Full Back, "Snips" Worsnip, got them out of their half on numerous occasions as the away side tried to gain ground through some deep kicking.
The final whistle saw 2 teams leave the field knowing that they had had a good afternoon of sport. This was a credit to the competitive nature of Cornwall Division 2 rugby. Stithians had played their first game at Camelford and had given a good account of themselves, but were clearly annoyed to have lost, despite having a weakened team.
Mention must be given to Martyn Baker, the Camelford prop who had a excellent first half in the lose and on one occasion gave a pass out from a centre position which was as good as was seen all afternoon.

Nic Osborne.