Falmouth 18, Paignton 11

Falmouth made a huge step towards survival as they defeated fellow relegation contenders Paignton on Saturday, writes Chris Jones.

The win now means that Falmouth move into tenth on 48 points, and with Torquay and Crediton below them and scheduled to play each other in the final game of the season, a win for Crediton will secure safety for the Eagles.

Paignton got off to a good start and were 3-0 up in the fifth minute after Michael Sandercock’s penalty sailed over the posts.

Paignton found themselves down to 14 after Christopher Hallett was sent to the bin for a swinging arm in the tackle and from 35 metres out Justyn Irons converted the penalty to level the scores.

Falmouth then took a 6-3 lead through the boot of Irons in the 21st minute before Kieran Rodda latched onto the end of a Mike Austin box kick to score in the far corner to increase the lead to 11-3 after half an hour.

It got better for the home side in the 37th minute when Tom Edmonds’ superbly timed pass to Goodman allowed the pacey centre to break the Paignton defence before offloading to the supporting Austin who crawled over the line underneath the posts to give Irons an easy conversion at 18-3.

But Paignton scored their second penalty of the game a minute after the break after Falmouth were penalised in the ruck and Sandercock secured the points to make it 18-3.

Paignton were desperate for the points and improved their chances of winning only a couple of minutes later when Stephen Worth bulldozed his way past Matt Horton to score just left of the posts to close the gap to just seven points.

Falmouth’s Anthony Geach was shown a yellow card in the 60th minute to ensure a very close finish, but Paignton could not find that all important try and Falmouth escaped with the points.

Falmouth: P Varker, AJ Geach, A Searle, J Baglow, K Vinson, S Somers, T Spiller, T Simmons, M Austin, J Irons, C Cambell, T Edmonds, D Goodwin, K Rodda, M Horton. Reps: O Church, T Ward, N Carne.