Devonport Services 28pts

Penryn 18pts

It would be great to start this report with the news that Penryn recorded their first league victory of the season, but it was not to be.

This is a great pity because Penryn continue to improve match by match. The forwards have performed well in all four league games to date, and the noticeable improvements are appearing in the backs.

Furthermore the team scored two tries, an excellent one involving the threes and finished off by Andrew Seviour, the other a great run by winger Will Paine after a tactical error by Services in the Penryn 22.

But luck, or lack of it, an element of weak tackling and rather stupid actions, leaving Penryn on the wrong side of the referee in the last 10 minutes, gave Devonport the win that could have easily been a defeat.

Penryn travelled without several regular first team players, and were further restricted when Kevin Kitto pulled up with a groin injury during the pre-match warm up. But such is the enthusiasm in the squad that the replacements more than made up for the absentees. In particular, Matt Biggins, recently signed from Falmouth, had a good debut in the centre, whilst Jordan Smith, also playing his first game since moving up from the colts, gave a good all-round performance at hooker.

There were also excellent games for Grant Randlesome, George Jones and Taron Peacock, all three of whom are rapidly becoming seasoned campaigners.

Services dominated the first quarter and built up a seven point lead, firstly from a drop goal by fly half Matt Anstis, then a goal from Anstis, when he scored a try and converted it himself, whilst the Borough could only reply with a Taron Peacock penalty goal.

However the visitors started to come back in to the game after 20 minutes, but pressure was not turned in to points until the second minute of injury time, when Andrew Seviour scored a try which Taron Peacock had no difficulty in converting to make the score all square at half time.

Penryn started the second half at a pace; after eight minutes of the half Peacock failed with a penalty goal attempt, whilst three minutes later, a scintillating run from Chris Mann saw him cross the line only for the touch judge to indicate a foot in touch. A further three minutes on, however, gave the visitors the lead from a Peacock penalty goal after Services were penalised for handling in the ruck.

With 20 minutes to go the Borough went further ahead when a Services mistake in the Penryn 22 saw Paine pick up and run all the way to the opposition goal line. The difficult conversion attempt failed but the visitors were ahead, and the home side would need two scores to win.

grettably Penryn could not hang on to their lead. Services came back with a goal to cut the lead to one point, and with ten minutes to go they ran in an unconverted try, followed by two penalties to give them a ten point lead at the final whistle.

Penryn were then left to reflect on what might have been.

Penryn: Alan Richards, Will Paine, Matt Biggins, Chris Mann, Travis Ashe, Andrew Seviour, Taron Peacock, Syd Savvas, Jordan Smith, Richard Tresidder, Grant Randlesome, Kevin Hughes, George Jones, Chris Johnson, Adam Giles. Subs: Gareth Wills 72), Matt Keverne (59), Kevin Kitto.