St Austell had much to chew on during the long journey back to Cornwall after letting victory slip through their fingers. The Saints had looked on course for their third away win of the season after scoring three tries in the opening 30 minutes. However, Chew Valley remain a combative and resilient opponent despite enduring a difficult season after several years of battling at the top-end of the league. A mixture of indiscipline under pressure, missed kicks and a loss of composure allowed the home side to mount a second half comeback to grab their second win of the season.

The Saints overcame the cold temperatures and a sticky pitch to start the game in imperious style. Dominating up front, the visitors launched waves of attacks with winger George Tregilgas opening the scoring after six minutes. Centre Ben Plummer added a second soon after, but it took a while for prop Matt Boothby to crash over for the third to make it 0-15 on the half hour mark. In what was ultimately to turn out to be the difference between the two sides, the normally laser-sighted Matt Shepherd was off-beam narrowly missing the attempted conversion attempts. Chew mounted a late search to get on the scoreboard and some overzealous defence saw flanker Henry Blackshire sent to the sinbin. The Saints fell short in their hopes of maintaining a home shutout by the interval when Chew took advantage of the disparity in numbers to nick a try to make the half time score 5-15.

A rejuvenated Chew set the pulses racing amongst the home support by scoring another try early in the second half. The visitors were now under the cosh as the home side continued to turn the screw. The penalties started to rack up and Chris Ashwin was the next Saint to turn Sinner with the visitors again reduced to 14 players. Chew slotted two penalties to turn the match on its head and take a 16-15 lead. It looked game over when they added a converted try with just four minutes left (21-15). The Saints laid siege from the restart and when Chris Ashwin slid over with time in the red, the contest boiled down to the conversion. A difficult kick hung in the air in an eery silence only to drift agonisingly wide. The hush was broken by home cheers confirming a narrow 21-20 win for Chew Valley.

Amongst the disappointment there was still much to be admire from the Saints. The young front row continued to perform well against bigger more experienced opponents. Henry Blackshire was rewarded for his patience after two bench appearances with his first start for the Saints. Matt Trahair demonstrated his potential with an impressive Saints debut. Four tries and two bonus points on the road will help temper the disappointment of not managing the difficult moments in a hard-fought contest.

Next week the Saints are at home to Sidmouth in a 2:30pm kick off at Tregorrick.