A MATT Hall hat trick of tries got Penryn back to winning ways on Saturday at a very windy Memorial Ground, writes Jonathan Plummer. 

Penryn who lost away to league leaders Plymstock the week before welcomed bottom-of-the-table Wiveliscombe hoping to keep up their unbeaten home record.

Fortunately, the heavy overnight rain had cleared but there was a gale-force wind blowing into the clubhouse corner. Wiveliscombe decided to play against the wind in the first half and they were the team who had all the early pressure.

After three minutes, Penryn lock Matt Carolyn received a yellow card for not rolling away at the ruck. Wiveliscombe did all they could to get over the try line but superb defence by the Borough held them out and won a penalty of their own to clear the pressure. Credit to Penryn they managed to survive the 10 minutes when down to 14 men and started to apply some pressure of their own.

Penryn got into the Wiveliscombe half and after several phases of play the ball was spread out to the right wing and Matt Hall held off several defenders to get the first try of the afternoon after 23 minutes. The gale force wind made goal kicking extremely tough and the wind blew this attempt off target.

Straight from the restart Penryn were on the attack and following a line out drive and good play from backs and forwards managed to create an overlap and Matt Carolyn gave the scoring pass for full back Kyle Johns to slide  in the left hand corner. Once again the conversion drifted wide but Penryn had a 10 point lead.

Wiveliscombe started to use the wind to their advantage and camped themselves in the Penryn 22, solid Penryn defence held out for several minutes but eventually just before the 40th minute Wiveliscombe got their first try after a pick and go and despite valiant attempts to hold the ball up the try was awarded, the conversion missed the uprights but Wiveliscombe had a foot hold in the match.

It was deep in first half injury time when Penryn got their third try of the match after a few phases of play fly half Rob Banks put in a beautifully weighted kick into corner for winger Matt Hall to sprint onto  and touchdown to restore Penryn’s 10 point buffer and a half time score of 15-5.

The second half was a scrappy affair with neither side being able to put many phases of play together in the difficult conditions. It was Wiveliscombe who got the first try of the half to cut the deficit to 5 points after 57 minutes following a strong run by the right wing.

Penryn started to make use of the conditions and a good cross field kick by centre James Salisbury got them into the Wiveliscombe 22. After several phases of play the Borough created an overlap in the clubhouse corner and replacement Jack Dunstan gave the decisive pass for Matt Hall to dive in for his hat trick try and Penryn’s bonus point score with 10 minutes to go and secure the victory for Penryn.

This win made it six wins from six matches at home for Penryn this season, Man of the match was winger Matt Hall after his hat trick of tries.

Penryn’s next match is away to third placed Tavistock on December 2 as they look to secure their first away win.

Earlier in the day Penryn colts continued their winning streak with a seven-try 41-5 win against Truro played at Truro College.