Rampant Borough maul Bideford
7:00am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in Sport By Ross Hancock
Penryn's Matt Williams lays the ball off PICTURE: Cornishphotonews
PENRYN 34
Tries: J Seviour, Ducker (2), Williams, Campbell
Con: Ducker (2), Seviour Pen: Ducker
BIDEFORD 19
Penryn recorded arguably their most impressive victory in a long line of recent successes when they dethroned league leaders Bideford at the Memorial Ground on Saturday, writes Ross Hancock.
It is the second time in as many months the top of the table side have visited the Borough and left with tails well and truly tucked between their legs.
The result was made all the more impressive as Penryn turned around a 70-0 defeat by the same opposition earlier on in the season, to record a bonus point victory and leave the visitors empty handed.
It didn’t look good early on for Penryn though as they seemingly gave their highflying opponents too much respect following the early season thrashing they received, as the Bideford took an early 6-0 lead courtesy of two Pat Sanders penalties.
By this point though, Penryn had the lion’s share of possession and territory, coming close to breaching the Bideford line on several occasions, only to be pegged back by the referee who had deemed to ball to be held up.
There was to be no mistake from the next phase, as centre Andrew Seviour crashed over with an Alex Ducker conversion giving Penryn a one point lead that they took into the break.
With a point separating a tense affair at half time, few would have predicted the riot that would come in the next thirty minutes as Penryn cut loose.
The Borough began to take control of the set piece, and a good driving game from the line out laid a good platform for their dangerous backs.
Ducker had threatened to break through in the first half, but Bideford hadn’t learnt their lesson and saw the jet-heeled winger skip past them to score in the corner.
Ducker narrowly failed to convert his own score, and he and Sanders traded penalties as Penryn saw their advantage delicately poised at 15-9 before the fun really started.
Bideford were growing increasingly frustrated with a lack of possession and chasing the game, and as Penryn turned up the heat the home side crossed the whitewash again.
The forwards rumbled their way to the line, before tight head Matt Williams crossed for his first try since the Boxing Day winner against Falmouth.
When Jake Seviour - who was instrumental all afternoon - converted following treatment for Ducker, Penryn were looking very comfortable at 22-9.
The rampage continued moments later, when the Penryn backline stretched their visitors to breaking point as Josh Chambers broke superbly and set up Colin Campbell who finished well in the corner.
The extras just sailed wide as Penryn wrapped up the bonus point and almost certainly the win.
Bideford were all at sea but Penryn showed absolutely no mercy as they stretched their lead again. A superbly weighted kick over the top bounced towards the line and Ducker almost couldn't believe his luck as he sprinted clear to finish off another Penryn try and convert yet again to leave Bideford astonishingly behind at 34-9.
There was a late scare for the home team as Bideford ran in two unconverted tries in the shape of Chris Snell and James Buckland to show their undoubted quality, but it was too little too late.
An astonishing turnaround from the Penryn side, who travel to Bude next week in a rich vein of form.
