PENRYN came agonisingly close to ending their recent away hoodoo at Devonport Services, losing out by the narrowest of margins following an 80th minute try.

You would have to go back to November 2010 to find the last Borough victory at Devonport, but it looked as if that unwanted record may come to an end before the home team’s late intervention.

Penryn were buoyed from last week’s fine bonus point victory against Tiverton and were eager to notch a first away league victory of the calendar year.

There were debuts for Martin Strick who started at fly-half and Ryan Burley from the bench, both of whom had fine inputs.

Starting the brighter of the two, Borough could well have taken the lead when they exploited space in the wide channels and created an early overlap.

The chance was squandered, but the away side looked dangerous.

The visitor’s pack were in the mood too and had the home scrum in all sorts of problems mid-way through the first period.

This pressure from the forwards eventually told when Dan Booth crashed over to open the scoring, with Strick adding the extra two.

Devonport responded well, especially up front with a series of powerful scrums and hard carries in Penryn territory, but the determined away defence would not let them past.

Only have a late penalty would give anything for the hosts to show for their efforts and the majority of possession from a half which would have been very pleasing for Penryn, especially in defence.

It was much of the same in the second period, with the home side dominating possession but ultimately having no answer to Penryn’s ferocious and well organised defence.

Both kickers missed long range penalties, but Strick landed his second from three attempts to push the Borough’s lead out to seven as time ticked by.

Borough continued to work exceptionally hard in defence and had to settle for a Devonport penalty goal as opposed to a try to take it to 10-6.

Ben Ashwin was yellow carded for an infringement at the ruck, but it still looked as if the 14 men of Penryn would hold out.

The home team went close on several occasions and were repelled time after time, but the pressure and the extra man eventually told.

Just as the scoreboard ticked to 80 minutes, Devonport crossed for their first and only try of the afternoon from close range, to give themselves a one point advantage.

The conversion was missed and with five minutes of injury time remaining, Penryn gallantly launched a final attack, but it was in vain as they fell to a tough defeat in the harshest of circumstances.

High flying Exeter University will provide a tough test at home for Penryn this Saturday.

PENRYN: 15 Creeden, 14 Chambers, 13 Vague, 12 Seviour, 11 Jordan, 10 M Strick, 9 N Strick; 1 Oldfield, 2 Booth, 3 A Strick, 4 Hancock, 5 Ashwin, 6 Jones (c), 7 Hinchley, 8 Randlesome.

REPS: Burley, Willey, Hughes.

TRY: Booth.

CON: M Strick.

PEN: M Strick.