Falmouth 12, Chard 12

A LAST-GASP try saw Falmouth surrender a 12-point lead to draw at home to Chard in their Tribute Western Counties West game on Saturday.

Tries from Tom Spiller and Rory Pugh gave the Eagles a 12-0 lead, but Max Gosden's try converted by Niall Crouch, got the Somerset side back in it, before Billy Brookes went over in the dying minutes to level the scores.

It could have been worse for the Eagles, but Crouch failed with what would have been their match-winning conversion.

Falmouth benefited from a Chard sin bin to open the scoring when scrum-half Spiller went over for an unconverted try.

The Eagles extended their lead early in the second half when a kick forward from a penalty saw Pugh get there first to dot down, with Horton converting the kick for a 12-0 lead.

But Chard got on top and hit back from a penalty, driving over from a scrum with skipper Gosden going over, with Crouch adding the extras.

The visitors appeared to level late on when dotting down under the posts, only for the referee to disallow it for an earlier infringement.

They were not denied for too long, with Brookes scoring out wide on the left in the final minutes to salvage a draw, although Crouch missed the difficult conversion to win the game.

Falmouth head coach Graham Whitmore had mixed emotions after the game, saying: "I feel we had enough opportunities to comfortably extend our 12-0 lead and take the game out of reach for Chard, but in the end we were lucky not to lose the game.

"It felt more like two points lost than two points gained, but two valuable points all the same.

"There was some real positives that came out of it. I was delighted with our line-out platform, which really limited their ability to drive their line-out which was a big part of the Chard game.

"Our team defence was also impressive but we gave away too many soft penalties which has happened on several occasions now."

Falmouth: O Evans, D Hubble, R Pugh, S Firth, N Carne, M Horton, T Spiller; A Searle, A Bullock, D Burroughs, J Martin, A Vincent, P Garway-Templeton, K Cobb, T Simmons. Reps: L Barkwill, S Instance, T Job.