Western Counties West

Wellington 37, St Austell 30

THE R&Bs welcomed St Austell to The Athletic Ground last Saturday and, as one would expect when the second-placed team play the fourth-placed team, the match was highly entertaining, nerve jingling and a full-blooded encounter from the first minute to the 95th minute, writes Allyn Chetland.

The game had everything: pace and passion, superb tries, 110% commitment and yellow cards for both sides.

Cam Venn came into the starting XV for Regan Walker who moved to the bench and Josh Hancock took the last place on the bench replacing Ollie Price.

Playing away from the clubhouse, The R&Bs soon found themselves 3-0 down in the opening minutes but soon put together some excellent passages of play.

The ball found captain Paddy Jarman who deftly chipped ahead, re-gathered and fed Liam Phillips who scored an excellent try. Full-back Alex Davey made no mistake with the extra points.

Next, centre George Hodgson turned his opposite number inside, out to score a wonderful unconverted try to increase The R&Bs' lead to 12-3.

The Saints responded with a close range try following a series of penalties, which resulted in centre Vinny Gordon spending 10 minutes on the sideline.

Despite this, Davey added a penalty and the visitors were rocked by an outstanding 10 minutes of rugby.

The re-start was gathered by prop Ryan Marke who went on a mesmerising run and fed Danny Lee, then on to prop Jack Richards.

A desperate tap tackle denied him the try but he popped the ball up to Chris Kitto who galloped in underneath posts for a 60m try - Davey again adding the conversion.

The visitors' retaliated however, outstanding defence on the halfway line saw The Saints drop the ball under intense pressure, Regan Walker, who had come on for his brother Martin a short time before, hacked the ball downfield.

Centre Hodgson showed a clean pair of heels to dribble and calmly scoop up the ball to score a converted try next to the posts to make it 29-8 to the home side.

The Saints crashed over for another close range unconverted try to make the score 29-13 just before the break.

Wellington started the second half well and Dan Goldstone crossed wide out for an unconverted try.

The Saints replied in kind with a converted close range try but the R&Bs came bouncing back, Davey successful with a penalty. The visitors dominated the last 10 minutes and scored two further unconverted tries.

The R&Bs soon found themselves deep in their own half and very deep into injury time with the Saints pressing hard. However, prop Richards kept his cool and bravely won the ball, the ball was kicked dead and the R&Bs took the spoils and five league points.

Wellington backed up last week’s display with another outstanding squad performance – everyone who took part can be proud of their contribution.

Next week, The R&Bs travel to Paignton.

The Devon side have been struggling of late but when the sides met earlier on in the season it was a highly competitive and entertaining game so The R&Bs must be prepared for another difficult away encounter.

Wellington: Richards, Dyke, Marke, Kitto, Walker M, Venn, Phillips, Lee, Goldstone, Jarman (c), Hart, Hodgson, Gordon, Pitman, Davey, Hooper, Walker R, Hancock.