Penryn 21, Honiton 15

Penryn recovered from a slow start and negated a tricky finish, to record a crucial victory over fellow promotion chasers Honiton.

It was the visitors who raced into an early 0-12 lead, but Penryn hit back to take the spoils despite a late onslaught from the visitors.

Games between the two sides are often tight encounters and with poor conditions greeting the players when they opened the curtains on Saturday morning, it looked as if it would be much of the same.

Conditions did improve by kick off but Honiton would have the wind advantage during the first forty.

The visitors have struggled on visits to Cornwall of late, suffering defeats at the hands of Lanner and Bude, but their start to the game suggested they were eager to correct those recent reverses.

The Honiton backline took advantage of some narrow defending by the Borough to score twice in quick succession through Jake Smith and Ben Webber, with Ollie Cave converting the latter of the two scores.

Needing a response, a shell-shocked Borough started to put together some phases and began to impose themselves on Honiton. It didn’t take long for the pressure to tell, as Mitchell Vague danced his way over for a fine individual score with the centre converting his own try.

In a high tempo contest, the score would remain 7-12 in favour of the visitors at the interval.

It was Penryn who would now have the luxury of a strong wind at their back in the second half and they used it to good effect immediately. Spotting a mismatch on the blindside, Adam Hughes broke the line and after swatting away a handful of defenders, he fed fellow back rower and skipper Grant Randlesome to level the scores.

Vague’s fine conversion gave Penryn the lead, but Honiton would wrestle the advantage straight back. Penryn made a mess of exiting from the restart, which immediately handed Honiton an attempt at goal from the penalty. Cave made no mistake and the visitors were back ahead by a point at 14-15.

In what was fast becoming an enthralling contest, both teams had good spells in attack but it looked like it would take something special to further trouble the scoreboard.

A little bit of magic was required to turn the game and a delightful combination from Vague and Hughes brought that magic. Vague, now in at fly half, fizzed a sumptuous ball across two Penryn attackers to find Hughes, giving the flanker a clear run in under the sticks to put the Borough back in front. Vague’s conversion made it 21-15 with just under a quarter of the game remaining.

Honiton were still in contention and in bonus point territory trailing by six, but the home side were sniffing a fourth try and bonus point of their own that would have made it a 5-0 match points swing in their favour.

It looked as if Kyle Bradley had added Penryn’s fourth when he beat his man to the ball over the goal line, but despite appearing to clearly ground it, Honiton escaped.

With Honiton staying in range of a converted try, it made for a nervy ending, as Penryn had to defend their way through wave after wave of Honiton attack.

To a man, the defence was superb, and the ferocity in the tackle from the home side eventually forced a knock on that sealed the points and sent the home crowd into jubilation.

Second travel to third in the table this Saturday, as Penryn face another crucial encounter away at Bude before a fortnight’s break from league action.

Penryn: Townsend, Bradley, Vague, Hitchens, Salisbury, Strick, Hinchley, Goldsworthy, Gratrix, Cockrell, Hancock, Hellier, Hughes, Jones, Randlesome. Reps: Pellow, Glyn, Chambers.

Tries: Vague, Randlesome, Hughes

Conversions: Vague (3)