Thornbury’s promotion hopes hit by defeat in Cornwall
THORNBURY lost 29-8 at St Austell in a top-three South West One West match, played in appalling conditions. It was all square at half-time but St Austell played the conditions better than Thornbury and in winning secured their first league win over Thorns at the sixth attempt.
There was a yellow weather warning welcoming Thornbury’s large crowd of travelling support, and as the players ran on to the field torrential rain and a vicious gale-force wind blew across the pitch.
Thornbury kicked off but St Austell used their big forwards to rumble up the pitch and Thorns had to defend frantically. That summed up the entire game. Thorns lost skipper Sam Evans through injury early on, before St Austell went ahead with a penalty. Jack Pinker levelled it up at 3-3 with a penalty in front of the St Austell posts a few minutes later.
St Austell played to their strengths. Their forwards’ ball retention was excellent and Thornbury found themselves constantly tackling. After half-an-hour, St Austell scored a try out wide after a period of pickand-go which had started with an unpenalised knock-on from a scrum.
Thorns took the opportunity of the restart to take play into the St Austell 22 and applied pressure, making it difficult for them to clear their lines. After a series of infringements in the home 22, Jay Burley drove from a quickly-taken penalty before Luke Panting and Jake Wood led an assault on the line. Then, after another carry from Panting, Pinker threw a long pass to Jake Goodridge, who barged over to score. The conversion missed and halftime arrived with the scores tied at 8-8.
Ten minutes into the second half, a converted try put St Austell ahead again after another series of pick-and-go. The match was put beyond Thornbury with ten minutes remaining when St Austell scored a third try from a quickly-taken penalty in front of Thorns’ posts. That was converted, as was the final try which gave St Austell the try bonus point, once more a series of pick-and-go in front of the Thornbury posts led to a prop barging over.
To the relief of all, the referee played little injury time. Despite the close score of the first half, Thornbury were rarely in the game. The players put everything into the match and defended well but constant tackling eventually took its toll.