THE second Cornish team to visit Kingsbridge RFC’s High House had made a good start to their season and the home faithful were expecting a hard-fought encounter, which is exactly what it turned out to be.

A large crowd bolstered by the ladies attending the annual ‘Scrummies’ lunch enjoyed not only glorious September sunshine but a cracking game of rugby.

Somehow Kingsbridge fielded not only a full-blown 1st XV but also three substitutes – a testament to the power of persuasion. A first appearance of the season for our game-changing tackler of last season seasons cup final – Ash Thuel and also for Ben Banner. Ben is usually 2nd XV Captain but showed he is more than capable of playing at this level. Also back from suspension was Toby Baldry, show slotted into the centre position vacated by Captain Freddie Buckle, with Dan Jarvis taking on the Captaincy.

Kingsbridge were first on the score sheet as Baldry raced through to give the home side a 5-0 lead. Baldry was starting to show what a valuable player he is to Kingsbridge and he made another searing break to feed Stan Gerrard, who raced in near the posts for the second try. Fly-half Ben Newman’s conversion made the score 12-0.

The home side seemed to slow the pace of the game down, it was pretty hot out on the field, and Penryn started to make inroads into the Kingsbridge defence. One such foray resulted in a penalty and gave the visitors their first points of the afternoon. They soon added a second penalty as Ben Newman was sin-binned and at 12-6, it was starting to look as if it was anybody’s game. Penryn seemed to sense Kingsbridge were slacking off a bit and after some good work in their midfield, they scored in the corner. The conversion was missed as Kingsbridge led 12-11 at the interval.

The half time team talk seemed to ignite more passion into the side and it wasn’t long before scrum half Joe Banfield scooted in for the home sides third try which Newman converted to increase their lead to 19-6. 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. Newman again converted.

Penryn were now running out of steam and Kingsbridge took full control. With their forwards dominating they were able to secure most of the play and a final try from Henry Rich, which was converted by Newman gave the home side a comfortable 33-11 victory, which had seemed unlikely at the start of the second half.

A good afternoon's work for the home side and hopefully a tonic for Manager Kevin Baldry as he recovers from surgery. Next week's trip to Penzance may be more challenging but the Blue and Whites have the players and the ability.

IVYBRIDGE meanwhile were on the blunt end of 78-8 clubbing away to Royal Wooton Bassett in South West One.

The Bridge travelled light in a couple of areas and were not helped by losing prop Matt Finn and centre Adam Lilley to injuries before halftime.

Full-back Matt Grieveson was a non-traveller, as was centre Charlie Teague, which meant some re-working behind the scrum on the team sheet.

Neil Thomson, the senior team manager at Cross-in-Hand, made no attempt to gloss over the team’s shortcomings.

“It was probably the poorest performance I have ever seen by the team,” said Thomson, who was a 1st XV regular in his own playing days.

“Injuries and availability problems before we travelled meant we had an untried backline, which seemed to lack togetherness.

“Wotton Bassett ran everything and before we knew it they were 40 points up.

“Our line-out wasn’t good, our scrum did not go well and we missed far too many tackles.

“It is only right to pick out James Cantin at scrum-half and Mike Jensen in the back row who did tackle and gave 100 per cent. The rest just weren’t at the party.”

Davy McGregor, the Ivybridge coach, said: “Royal Wootton Bassett have a decent side, who are well-conditioned and a very direct young group.

“But our mistakes and our error count were on the Richter scale unfortunately.

“We just didn’t have the maturity when something was going wrong to be able to change the flow of the game and do something different.

We kind of compounded our errors, which was a little bit frustrating as it was a bit of a backwards step to where we have been in the last three weeks.

It was Ivybridge’s heaviest defeat since 2022 when Camborne crushed them 78-18. Their only points against RWB came from a Will Peakman try and a Ben Fallows penalty.

Ivybridge will be aiming to bounce back this Saturday when they host Launceston.

IVYBRIDGE Vandals hammered Totnes 90-12 in Devon Two South West the South Hams derby.

Hamish Harris scored a hat-trick of tries for the Vandals, with Owen Garner, Lewis Cook and Charlie Teague both crossing twice. Will Johnson, Jamie Hough, Sam Wilmington and Harry West all got on the scoresheet. Luke Martell kicked 10 conversions for the Bridge.

Pictured from left to right are Sam Willmington (C) and three debutants: Jamie Hough, Harry West and Harry Towle.