Gloucestershire under-20s 27, Cornwall under-20s 31

A LATE try from skipper Aaron Simmonds gave Cornwall Under 20s a deserved win against fancied Gloucestershire Under 20s, writes Bill Hooper.

Cornwall’s hearts were in their mouths as referee Julian Rainford at first appeared unsure of the grounding, but happily for the Cornish lads his assistant saw the grounding. 

The win sees Cornwall top their group to earn a home quarter-final in two weeks time.

Whether that game goes ahead remains to be seen, but for now the Cornwall squad can reflect on a job well done.

Cornwall got off to a cracking start with lock Steele Barker charging down an attempted clearance and gathering the ball before passing inside to fellow lock Mawgan Osborne who scored. Simmonds added the first of his four conversions.

The Gloucestershire boys, rattled, then conceded a penalty in front of the posts that Simmonds calmly popped over to stretch the lead.

Eventually the home side settled with their fly-half Tom Price getting them on the board with a penalty.

A searing break from Charlie Levick set up Cornwall’s second try that led to the Osborne brother combining to send Toby over for another converted try.

Flanker Tom Spiers again caught the eye with his work at the breakdown turning ball over and dangerous with the ball in hand.

Gloucestershire were starting to get some momentum at scrum time, they pressurised the Cornwall line and from a five-metre scrum their powerful No.8 Adam Hopkinson drove over for Price to convert.

Cornwall will be disappointed in the manner they saw their lead disappear. Attacking in the opposing twenty-two, a stray pass was hacked on by Gloucestershire’s Tim Andrew, with the wing showing his speed to win the race to the line, with Price’s conversion tying the scores at half-time.

Cornwall started to use their bench, with Mishka Fibbens and Joe Best coming on and putting in some big drives.

Spiers’ good work was temporarily halted when he appeared to be harshly sin-binned. Price took the chance to put his side ahead from the kicking-tee for the first time.

Under the cosh, Cornwall conceded another try from a close-range scrum with Hopkinson once again the scorer, with Price’s conversion giving Gloucestershire a 27-17 advantage with the clocking ticking down.

Prop Eliot Salt, who had a fine game, took a heavy knock that stunned him for several minutes, giving Cornwall the chance to refocus.

Cornwall had to throw the dice and piled on the pressure, and when Spiers was held up over the line, suddenly the home side saw yellow.

Following several concerted drives near the Gloucestershire line Cornwall got their lifeline thanks to Cameron Taylor, with Simmonds calmly slotting the extras to make it game on once more.

Back came the Cornish lads, and with patience being their watchword, they calmly went through the phases that led up to Simmonds' try.

It wasn’t over, Cornwall had to withstand a final Gloucestershire surge near their line, but when they knocked on Cornwall had their win.

Coach Richie Kevern was delighted with his side’s attitude, saying: “We showed some character out there today, to have made that good start and then find yourself ten points down nearing the end the lads could have cracked, but they showed a mature attitude, were patient and forced the errors from Gloucestershire, they earned that win the hard way.”

Cornwall under-20s: Levick, Brooks, Simmonds (Capt), Plummer, Bullen, Tucker, Stacey; Looker, Oliver, Salt, Barker, M Osborne, T Osborne, Spiers, Wickham. Reps: Taylor, Fibbens, Bennett-Murray, Best, Stoddern, Murray, Clemo.