Penryn 19, Wellington 14

Penryn continued their 100 per cent start to their Cornwall/Devon season with a hard fought victory against Wellington.

Despite conditions resembling that of the winter months, Penryn looked like they would take another maximum points haul from their afternoon's work.

In the end though they would have been happy with the win, as the visitors who came down from Western Counties last season made life hard for the Borough at times.

Penryn went into the game high in confidence after consecutive bonus point wins and began to impose themselves on their home patch.

A high tempo start for the second week in a row caused the visitors plenty of problems, not least from the powerful Penryn scrum. It didn’t take long for Penryn to find space out wide and man of the match George Mitchell sprinted away for an unconverted score.

If Penryn thought they were in for another routine victory, they were in for a rude awakening.

Despite their dominance and some excellent defence to keep the visitors out, Penryn’s discipline or lack of it, let Wellington back into the game.

A couple of penalties and the boot of Alex Davey saw the visitors move ahead at 6-5 with half time approaching. Facing the prospect of trailing in a game that they had dominated going into the interval, the Borough sprung into life.

A series of punishing carries from the forwards, some neat interplay in the backs and a sprinkle of individual brilliance regained Penryn the lead.

Andrew Seviour continued his try scoring start to the season with a trademark score and Aaron Simmonds conversion meant Penryn deservedly led 12-6 at the break.

The Borough started the second half as they had finished the first and were now firmly back in control.

The dimensions of the home pitch especially were playing into Penryn hands, so it was no surprise to see their lead of six soon turn into 13.

Again the Penryn backs caused mayhem after the forwards had allowed them to do so and this time it was Simmonds who was put away with relative ease, converting his own score in the process to make it 19-6.

Again there was a sense that Penryn would push on, but again that proved not to be the case.

In a recurring theme to the first half it was ill-discipline from the Borough that let the visitors back in. Wellington were knocking on the Penryn door with great frequency, but had to make do with another Davey penalty to reduce the gap to ten.

The warning signs were there for Penryn as Wellington had a try ruled out for a forward pass, but as the penalty count continued to rise Penryn were eventually punished.

After a series of attacks on the Penryn line, Wellington kicked to the corner from the penalty and proceeded to drive the maul over for a potentially crucial try from Chris Kitto.

With the missed conversion, Penryn now led 19-14.

Despite the visitors being within a converted score, they never looked like going on to win the game in truth, as Penryn weathered the storm and managed their way through the rest of the game to secure a solid win.

It might not have been the prettiest of victories, but it was an important one nonetheless. The Borough travel to Wessex this weekend.

Penryn: Simmonds, Mitchell, Hitchens, Seviour, Salisbury, Strick, Oliver, Patterson, Degenhardt, Goldsworthy, Hancock, Trevaskis, Howson, Stanfield, Randlesome reps: Oldfield, Hellier, Paine.

Tries: Mitchell, Seviour, Simmonds. Conversions: Simmonds (2)