Saints falter on the Hill

The Saints looked decidedly off colour and although their commitment and effort could not be faulted, a litany of unforced errors and poor decision making played straight into the home side’s hands. Coney Hill sensed an upset and the staccato nature of the match enabled the home side to harry and disrupt the Saints at every opportunity. Starved of quality ball the Cornishmen became increasingly frustrated as they tried to force the pace but the lack of precision just added to their woes. Coney Hill on the other hand stuck to their game plan and ruthlessly punished Saints’ mistakes with four well taken tries.

The Saints had a dream start when centre Alex Welland made an excellent line break before offloading to Dan Pearce. The speedy full back cruised over for the first try with Matt Shepherd’s conversion making it 7-0 with barely a minute gone. Coney Hill roared back and after 5 minutes of sustained pressure winger Rob Jones dived in at that corner. The Saints then had a period of ascendency but handling errors or unsympathetic passing meant they failed to take the opportunities created from a number of promising backline moves. The home side weathered the storm and took a 10-7 lead when their outstanding number 8 Angus Macrae crashed over. With half time approaching tempers flared and from the penalty the Saints kicked deep into the Coney Hill 22. A line out catch and drive saw prop Hugh Noott driven over to put the Saints 12-10 at the break.

Hopes that the Saints would put the first half wrongs right were shattered in a blink of an eye. The failure to gather an innocuous looking kick ahead by Coney Hill resulted in a touch down for winger Tim Bebber to put the home side back in front. The visitors refocused but time and time again the hard yards were lost as they fell foul of the referee at the breakdown. One passage of play saw the Saints move the ball 40m through 11 phases before being penalised for going off their feet within sight of the try line and the Coney Hill defence stretched. The hard work was eventually rewarded when winger Ben Chenoweth charged down a clearance kick to score putting the Saints back in front at 17-15. This was the time when the visitors needed to impose themselves on the game but a calamitous attempt to run the ball out of their own 22 led to a knock on. Coney Hill’s secured steady scrum ball and a well worked back row move saw flanker Jamie Hemmings dive over. Pat Knight’s conversion put the home side 22-17 in front with 15 minutes to go. The Saints huffed and puffed but Coney Hill defended excellently and so it was home delight at the final whistle.

It was a gloomy trek back down the M5 to Cornwall and while the Saints can point to a catalogue of injuries and unavailability they know they were far from their best and Coney Hill deserved the victory. The result does not detract from the fact that the Saints have had an excellent first season back in SW1. They will finish in the highest league position ever achieved by any side in St Austell RFC's 50 year history. The good news is they will not have long to stew over the game and have a wonderful opportunity on Wednesday to unleash their frustrations from Saturday when they host Saltash in the Cornwall County Cup Semi Final (KO 7:30pm). The final league game of the season follows next Saturday when North Petherton come to Tregorrick (KO 3pm).

Match Stats:

St Austell: Noott; Davey; Rowe; Vian; Grigg (Jeremy); Grigg (Jack); Venner; Pearce (A); Shepherd (Captain); Ashwin; Chenoweth; Welland; Wilson; Pellow; Pearce (D)

Replacements: Pill; Rhodes; Phillips

St Austell:

Tries – Dan Pearce (1); Hugh Noott (39); Ben Chenoweth (52);
Cons – Matt Shepherd (1)
Pens –
Drop Goal –

Coney Hill:

Tries – Rob Jones (5); Angus Macrae (27); Tim Bebber (41); Jamie Hemmings (68)
Cons – Pat Knight (68)
Pens –
Drop Goal –

Yellow Cards:
St Austell: None
Coney Hill: None

Red Cards:
St Austell: None
Coney Hill: None

Referee: Phil Hallsworth (Gloucester & District Society)

Saints Man of the Match: Ben Chenoweth