Devon 0, Cornwall 17
CORNWALL retained the Tamar Cup at Brickfields on Monday night, but they made hard work of it against considerably weaker opponents.
Eleven of the Duchy's starting line-up play for Redruth or Cornish All Blacks in National Two South, as do six of the ten replacements they brought on, with another two from Championship side Plymouth Albion.
Devon, meanwhile, had a 20-man squad which featured only four players plying their trade above National Three South West level.
On paper, it should have been a very comfortable win for Cornwall, and even though Devon failed to trouble the scoreboard, it was far from easy for the visitors against gutsy opponents in a game not helped by heavy drizzle falling throughout the contest.
Run out
However, it was good for Cornwall to get a run-out only 12 days before their opening County Championship game against Gloucestershire at Cinderford.
Cornwall head coach Dave 'Benji' Thomas said: "It was a difficult sort of match really, because we promised all 25 players would get a game tonight, which was fair enough.
"We established a pattern in the first half, and then that had to be adjusted with the next ten players coming onto the field.
"We had the majority of possession in the game, and our scrummaging was awesome in the first half, but it was just very difficult to break Devon down, because they were perhaps not as well organised as we were, and we were coming back and running into people who were running to the breakdown, whereas we were trying to move the ball away again. We should probably have been able to re-adjust to that, but on the night we didn't, and consequently it was an ebb and flow sort of game, with us trying to retain possession each time. I thought our defence was very, very good, and our scrummaging was excellent.
"We lost ball in contact, and we need to make some adjustments in our line-out, but overall, as a dress rehearsal for the real thing, it was very good."
Cornish All Blacks loose-head prop Martin Rice, deputising for the injured Darren Jacques, made his first appearance for Cornwall since 2005, and deservedly picked up the Trelawny's Army Supporters' Club man-of-the-match award.
"Martin had a really good game, and when you have got someone like him to take over from Darren, you really are in business, and it gave us a formidable scrum with him coming in," said Thomas.
"Scrum half Matt Shepherd moved up a level from a successful St Austell team and played very, very well.
"Overall, there were some hopeful signs, which have got to be cemented in when we get together next Wednesday ahead of the Gloucestershire game."
Cornwall took the lead with a Shepherd penalty after 14 minutes, and could have added a try four minutes later when a spilt final pass wrecked a lovely handling move. A superb tackle by Devon's Saltash winger Max Venables denied Cornwall full back Joe Parma a certain try in the corner on the half-hour. But two minutes later, Devon centre Matt Williamson was turned over close to his own line, and the ball was moved quickly left for Lewis Paterson to feed winger Tom Notman, who raced in from 20 metres, and Shepherd slotted a fine conversion to make it 10-0.
Devon's only chance of the first half fell to fly half Charlie Attis, but he squandered a 25-metre penalty opportunity, and they failed to take advantage of a yellow card for Cornwall winger Richard Bright six minutes before the break.
Cornwall all but wrapped the game up in the 55th minute when Redruth flanker Chris Fuca secured good close-range line-out ball, and Rice was driven over by his forwards, with Shepherd once more converting to establish a 17-point lead.
The introduction of Cornish All Blacks scrum half Richard Friend off the bench gave Devon renewed impetus, and he almost reached the try line himself with one surging run, while Cornwall were indebted to a tap tackle by replacement hooker Jamie Salter for preventing another likely touchdown.
Cornwall, though, kept their line intact, despite losing Paterson to the sin-bin close to full time.
