Falmouth scrape home in Cornwall

Saturday saw the Lacemen take the long journey down in to Cornwall to play Falmouth. Realistically this was always going to be a difficult encounter given the Cornishmen’s fourth placed league status and then throw in the small matter of a certain gale called Desmond and it was always going to be a tough day out for the Ton.

During the warm up the Cornishmen looked well organised and they started brightly but credit to Honiton they got amongst them and disrupted the organisational patterns and you could see Falmouth were frustrated as their game plan struggled to work. The wind was clearly a factor in the game but was more of a cross wind than an end to end one and it made playing “long pass” rugby difficult. Honiton’s scrum stood up well and front row trio of Harrison, Watman and Olive performed well all afternoon. Falmouth’s backs looked dangerous with the ball but Honiton’s defence managed them well.

Falmouth broke the dead lock on the 30 minutes mark with a well struck penalty having missed one moments earlier. They double the score five minutes later but it must be said Honiton had their moments in this first half and Matt Olive was held up over the line and a five yard scrum where Honiton could have scored saw an unforced error punished with a good clearance kick.

With a narrow six point gap Honiton were very much still in it but unfortunately they started badly and a series of drives saw the Cornishmen work the ball wide for an early score to go 11 up. You’d be forgiven for thinking Honiton’s resolve was broken but they dug deep and to a man worked hard in this half and they put some good passages of play together unfortunately there were still the occasional error that often negated sets of good phased work. It was end to end stuff and with 15 to go whilst Falmouth were on the attack there was a big hit from Honiton that spilled the ball it was swiftly transferred from Canniford to Guilbert who fed Meadows who on the halfway drew his man to release Will Tyers who stepped left and right and then won the foot race to the line for the highlight of the game. Canniford added the extras to make it game on.

The last 15 minutes were frantic and Honiton pressed but it was all to no avail as the home side hung on to their lead for the narrow 11-7 victory. Honiton were probably more shocked with the score line having assume they would get a pasting but it clearly shows what can be done if you work hard together. Senior players Rice and Guilbert played well and new comer Corry Pulman also looked good as did Matt Olive, Martin Keep and the back three but the man of the match award went to Phil Bennett for his work in the mid field but really you could mention the whole team for effort and you’d be forgiven for forgetting Honiton actually lost!

With team sprit looking good at the moment next weeks home tie against Tavistock looks as if it would be a good place to be see you there!.