Report very kindly provided by Richard Trewella
CRFU Junior Vase Qualification Final
Newquay Hornets 16 Bodmin 13
The match on Saturday was played on a neutral ground, at St Agnes. Despite heavy overnight rain, the playing surface gave the two sides every encouragement to play open rugby. Last season’s two league encounters went with home advantage and the group stage match in this competition early in September this year also went with home advantage, Bodmin winning 28-18.
In a frenetic 80 minutes Hornets dogged defence, their aggressive edge and their unquenchable spirit, coupled with an ability to take advantage of the few scoring opportunities they had, gave them the win.
Bodmin pack dominated the scrummage and gave their backs good ball. They looked very impressive in the early exchanges. They camped in Hornets half, but they could not break down the tenacious Hornets defence. Bodmin’s domination of territory in the first half was helped by Hornets’ indiscipline. The Newquay side gave away thirteen penalties and had two players given yellow cards before half time. Despite this, they scored first. Cody Hill continued his excellent kicking form, slotting two penalties to put his side six points up by the half hour. Bodmin missed a kickable penalty at 3-0 after 25 minutes. However after 34 minutes Bodmin had taken the lead with a converted try scored following a ruck only metres from the Hornets line. Then turnover ball and a long kick into Bodmin twenty-two set up an opening, which elusive fly-half, Connor Riley snapped up with relish. Hill converted to give his side a 13-07 interval lead.
The half time team talk from Coach, Ian Williams had its desired effect. His side’s penalty count reduced drastically. But they were caught offside five minutes into the second period and Bodmin’s luck changed, a penalty cut their deficit to three points, but a second penalty miss didn't help their cause. Hornets were forced to defend for ten minutes, and Bodmin made it 13-13 with a second penalty. With ten minutes to go, a long distance penalty attempt from full back Kyle Plummer went past the left hand post for Hornets. The smart money was on a Bodmin win as their pack continued to force the Hornets backwards at scrum time.
The Bodmin backs continued to run well, but the Hornets defence just continued to knock them over. With a little over five minutes remaining, Bodmin defence gave ground and were caught offside in front of their posts. Plummer made no mistake to put Hornets in front.
The Hornets side sensed an unexpected win and with immense commitment stood firm. In fact they took the game to Bodmin. Two intimidating runs from hooker, Chesney King had Bodmin defenders bouncing off him. A final penalty kick out of defence from Bodmin went dead and they were out of time. Morale boosted, Hornets now await news of their out of county opponents in the next round to the National Junior Vase competition.
Scorers: Try Riley, Conversion Hill, Penalties Hill (2), Plummer
Team: Rich Brewer, Chesney King, Alex Benbow, Tom Rainey, Billy Bromfield, Dylan Messenger, Logan Ward, Adam Rainey, Dave Rich, Connor Riley, Matt Burt, Daniel Bradford, Josh Mares, Cody Hill, Kyle Plummer, Jack Morrison, Olli Winn, James Taylor, Callum Varcoe, Ryan Johns, Ben Thomas
