Falmouth 29, Chard 15

TOM EDMONDS scored a hat-trick as Falmouth secured their fourth win in a row, with Chard the latest team to be put to the sword at the Recreation Ground on Saturday, writes Matt Friday.

The Eagles continued their recent resurgence and scored four tries to earn their third bonus-point victory in their last four outings, with Tom Spiller grabbing the other try.

Heavy rain earlier in the day had turned the pitch into a quagmire, but Falmouth didn’t let the conditions bother them as they scored three tries to race into a 21-0 half-time lead.

The first try came on 17 minutes when scrum-half Spiller burst through and touched down following a good initial run from Simon Bailey, with Justyn Irons scoring a simple conversion.

Chard had themselves to blame when the hosts scored their second try, with Edmonds intercepting a loose pass on the 10-metre line and storming through unopposed to score.

The dust had barely settled after Edmonds’ first try when he went over again, this time breaking through from well inside his own half to score the hosts’ third on the half-hour mark.

After being thoroughly outplayed in the first 40 minutes, the visitors markedly improved after half-time and scored their first try within six minutes of the restart.

Full-back Charlie Roberts converted it before tucking away a penalty a few minutes later to bring the visitors to within two converted tries with 20 minutes remaining.

However any realistic hopes of a comeback ended when Edmonds finished off a good move to complete his hat-trick with what was the home side’s first meaningful attack of the half.

Irons missed the conversion but added another penalty two minutes from time, before Chard grabbed a second consolation try with the final act of the game.

Falmouth: A Varker, A Geach, A Searle, T Ward, J Dobson, T Tonkins, S Bailey, T Simmons, T Spiller, J Irons, S Firth, T Edmonds, D Goodwin, D Hubble, L Humphreys. Reps: B Cock, J Baglow, M Lea.

Falmouth will look to make it five wins in a row when they travel to Crediton on Saturday.