Redruth prop Darren Jacques praised director of rugby Adrian Edwards and his coaching team for a successful first season in charge at the club.
The Reds finished their National League Two South season in fourth place following a seven-try victory over Taunton Titans at the Recreation Ground on Saturday.
Edwards, together with his coaches, Ashley Morcom and Steve Evans, kept Redruth in the running for a top-two spot for most of the season before the small size of the squad caught up with them last month.
However, Jacques has been a proud member of a Redruth squad who beat the Cornish All Blacks at Polson Bridge in the league for the first time and remained unbeaten at the Recreation Ground until March this term.
"It is amazing really to think we have achieved all we have this season with such a small playing squad," said Jacques.
"We have had no second-team rugby and although we started off the season with 40 guys, by Christmas we were down to 20 players. You get injuries and it becomes even less, we just stuck at it.
"Steve Evans is a coach but he put his kit on and played. Last week, Ashley Morcom was sat on the bench despite his bad back. That's the way it has been. We are just lucky the season is over because next week, I would have half expected Adrian would have ended up on the field!"
A 45-40 try-fest with Taunton Titans was a fitting way for Redruth to end the season, according to Jacques. His side were forced to fight back from a losing position late in the game but the front-row forward showed that a long, hard season has done little to dull his sense of humour.
He said: "It was a lovely dry day so we thought we would go out there and try and play a bit of Barbarians rugby.
"Even though we were losing with 12 minutes to go, we always knew we would win.
"We scripted it at half-time. We said we would allow them to score some quick-fire tries in the second half to get the crowd buzzing and then we would come back and pinch it.
"It was one of those things. We have got to the tail end of the season with a really small squad so things like missed tackles and mistakes are going to happen.
"But it was nice to finish the season off with a win, we have a lot of respect for the job Adrian has done with us this season. Sometimes you are battling with small squads and everything else but we have stuck together, win or lose."
