1st vs Falmouth Away

Honiton stretched their lead at the top of the Devon and Cornwall league to five points with a convincing 29-5 victory over Falmouth in Cornwall.

Although Falmouth lie in the lower half of the division, the game at Allhallows was a tight affair, this combined with the fact that Honiton have not won at Falmouth for some time gives one some understanding of the gravitas of the result.

On arrival at Falmouth it became clear that the elements would play apart, with a very strong wind blowing down the field. Honiton elected to play into the wind in the first half and new that they would need to be resilient in the opening period.

Guilbert and Lane combined to make a mess of the kick off, and after conceding a penalty the Lacemen found themselves on their own line defending a lineout. Falmouth over threw the lineout allowing the Lacemen to gather possession. In a bid to combat the wind, the back division span the ball out to the left where Canniford made the most of the overlap to make nearly fifty yards. He then cleverly offloaded to Barratt who raced clear to cross under the posts to give his side a 7-0 lead.

For the rest of the half it was backs against the wall for Honiton in the difficult breeze, but it was a sterling defensive performance from the visitors. Honiton did break out with pace on several occasions but were guilty of giving away penalties, essentially letting the Cornish off the hook.

As half time drew near, Selway tapped a penalty on the half way. Hannay carried the ball into contact and the Lacemen recycled the ball quickly to give the backs space. Again it was Barratt ho did the dameage as he broke through the gain line and crossed for a five pointer.

At half time Honiton had broken the back of it, but knew that they would have to sustain their efforts to keep the Cornish at bay. They found territory relatively easily and began to force Falmoth into errors. Falmouth struggled to get out of their own half in the third quarter as Honiton turned the screw. A line out gave Channing the chenace to dart through and cross from seven yards, Canniford adding the extra’s. Honiton pressed on and soon full back and skipper Rice jinked through to open the space for a fifty yard dash. He had enough pace to race to the line, with again Canniford scoring the extras.

Cave had come on for Channing and he added a penalty to stretch the Lacemens lead before the Falmouth revival. In the last quarter of an hour they gained some territory and used a maul and a series of pick and drives to crash over for an unconverted effort.

All in all in was a good day out for the Lacemen and travelling support. Next week they face a tough test in the form of Hayle.