Kingsbridge 33 - Penryn 11
The away day blues continued for Penryn on Saturday after a hard fought encounter at Kingsbridge, writes Jonathan Plummer.
Penryn were disrupted before the kick off, with Peter Cockrell ruled out through injury after taking a knock the previous week and Thomas Hoban having to pull out due to work commitments.
It was a glorious September day and a large crowd was in attendance.
Kingsbridge were first on the scoresheet as centre Tony Baldry raced through to give the home side a 5-0 lead.
Baldry, playing his first match of the season after serving a suspension, created the next try after making a searing break he fed winger Stan Gerrard, who raced in near the posts for the second try. This time fly half Ben Newman’s conversion was good and the Blues led 12-0.
Penryn were staring down the barrel at this point but to their credit controlled the next quarter of the match.
Penryn started to make inroads into the Kingsbridge defence. One such foray resulted in a penalty and Skipper James Salisbury made no mistake to give the visitors their first points of the afternoon.
Penryn soon added a second penalty, kicked by Salisbury, as Kingsbridge fly half Ben Newman was sin binned and it was starting to look like anybody’s match.
Penryn reduced the deficit to just one point after good work in midfield by Dan Tripconey; flanker Oliver Foreman scored the try. The conversion was missed as Kingsbridge led 12-11 at the interval.
Half time came at the wrong time for the Borough as Kingsbridge came out firing in second half.
Penryn were also disrupted as Jack Truen and Dan Tripconey both had to leave the field because of injury.
Kingsbridge scrum half Joe Banfield scooted in for the home side third try, which Newman converted to increase their lead to 19-11. That lead soon became 26-11 as Banfield was again on the end of a passing move to touch down for the bonus point try and put the match out of reach for Penryn; Newman again converted.
Penryn were now running out of steam and Kingsbridge took full control and scored a final try by flanker Henry Rich, which was again converted by Newman. This gave the home side a comfortable 33-11 victory, which seemed unlikely at the start of the second half.
Penryn will look to get back to winning ways when they welcome Paignton to the Memorial Ground on Saturday 3pm. This will be a hard fought contest against top of the table Paignton. who only missed out on promotion last season on points difference.
Meanwhile Kingsbride head down to Penzance to play Pirates Amateurs.
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