Falmouth came within a whisker of earning an excellent victory at Wadebridge Camels on Saturday, ultimately going down to a narrow 27-23 defeat at Molesworth Field.

The Eagles pushed the reigning Cornwall Cup champions hard and led until just before half-time, when the hosts ran in 17 points in first-half injury-time to lead at the break.

Falmouth rallied after the break and got three tries on the board via Dan Hubble, Seb Firth and Tom Spiller, but the Camels added one of their own to seal victory.

The visitors began well with Kieran Rodda kicking two penalties to put the Eagles six points up, before Danny Thomas replied with one of his own for the hosts.

But the Camels took advantage of eight added minutes at the end of the half to run in two tries from Dickie Dawe and Adam Pengelly, with both being converted by Thomas.

Hubble got the Eagles' first try in the second half when he finished off a break, with Callum Penry setting up another when he sped towards the line and offloaded for Firth to go over.

But Adam Blackmore then crossed the whitewash for the home side to effectively secure victory, with Thomas converting again for 27-16.

Falmouth responded late on with Rodda teeing up Spiller to go over in the right corner, and while Rodda converted to take it to four points, there was no time to restart. The Eagles did, however, pick up a losing bonus-point for their efforts.

Head coach Graham Whitmore was largely pleased with his side's performance despite the defeat, saying: "I was delighted with the team's performance for the first 40 minutes or so during which we pretty well controlled territory and possession.

"A couple of big decisions went against us and in that eight minutes of injury-time Wadebridge scored 17 points which really hit us hard, having worked so hard to get the upper hand in that first 40.

"The lads really responded superbly in the last 20 minutes or so. We defended excellently, put real pressure on them and forced errors into their attack and resulted in two tries and ultimately a well deserved bonus point.

"It was a much improved performance from last week, we rectified a lot of our team and individual errors but ultimately still striving for that 80 minutes of consistency from the side.

"In this league any errors get heavily punished and that was the case in the middle period of the game."