Wellington 44, Falmouth 7

FALMOUTH began the new year with an eight-try hammering at the hands of Tribute Western Counties West leaders Wellington.

The Eagles had inflicted the Somerset side's only defeat of an otherwise flawless campaign so far when they won 26-19 at the Rec in September, but they were powerless to prevent their ruthless hosts in the return fixture on Saturday.

The defeat, coupled with Tiverton's win over Honiton, sees Falmouth slip back into the relegation zone by virtue of points difference.

It took ten minutes for the leaders to open the scoring, with Paddy Jarman going over for an unconverted try.

Falmouth missed the chance to close the gap with a failed penalty attempt ten minutes later, before AJ Geach and Wellington's Martin Walker were sin-binned in separate incidents within five minutes of each other.

The hosts extended their advantage shortly after the game returned to 15-a-side, with Ash Harney going over for a second unconverted try just before the break.

Nev Pitman bagged a third try almost immediately following the resumption, with Rob Hooper seemingly making sure of victory with another barely two minutes after that. Both were unconverted to keep the score at 20-0.

Harney went over for his second and his side's fifth to complete a devastating first ten minutes of the second half, but the hosts were luckless once again with their conversion attempt.

A yellow for winger Nick Carne allowed Wellington to score a sixth through Chris Kitto midway through the half, with Rob Hooper kicking the first conversion of the day.

He added his second kick a few minutes later after Cam Venn went over, before Falmouth scored their only points of the day through a Tom Vincent try, which was bettered by Callum Penry.

There was still time for Pitman to dot down for his second and his side's eighth try to complete the drubbing, which went unconverted.

Falmouth: T Job, D Hubble, R Pugh, S Firth, N Carne, C Penry, R Coote; A Searle, A Geach, D Burroughs, T Vincent, J Martin, P Garway-Templeman, B Bateson, T Spiller. Reps: A Bullock, T Ward, S Thomas.