Liskeard-Looe 10 Falmouth 7
Liskeard-Looe finally got their act together to gain invaluable home points, reproducing the sort of form that earned them promotion last year. From the first whistle it was obvious Liskeard-Looe were in the mood to play rugby. No slow start this week, but a cohesion and determination shown previously only in patches. Falmouth, showing the sort of flair that has taken them to third place in the league, made early inroads into the Liskeard-Looe half, but the Lions were not to be intimidated or unduly disturbed and excellent covering and tackling by Lester Hannah, Stuart Aldritt, Dave Hannah and Martin Sobey kept Falmouth at bay. Some excellent work in the rucks by James Collins, Luke Manders, Danny Curgenven and Mark Bunt set up counter-attack chances, with Adam Driver and Ali Hill making good moves from the set scrums and breakdown. Liskeard-Looe were this week much quicker to the breakdown in numbers, resulting in second phase possession and chances for the threequarters to show their pace. Scrum half Dan Goodman was aggressive at the base of the scrum and linked well with fly half Rob Vivian. There were some exciting passages of play with the ball going out to the wings Duncan Fraser and Neil Spencer. It took huge efforts by Falmouth to deny Liskeard-Looe, but deny they did, often to counter and force the home side to defend desperately. The inability of either side to convert pressure to points caused some frustration, which led to a scuffle involving almost everyone just before half time. This was soon sorted out, but half time was reached with no points on the board, but plenty of effort. Soon after the restart it became apparent that Liskeard-Looe were beginning to dominate in sections of the game. Their reward came soon after when Martin Sobey completed an invasion of Falmouth territory by running in a well-deserved try. Falmouth fought their way back but superb covering and tackling by Liskeard-Looe and some excellent touch kicking by Rob Vivian and Marcus Hill meant that the match remained fairly even until about 15 minutes from time. That was when Falmouth finally broke through the Liskeard-Looe defence and Danny Trick went in to score under the posts to provide an easy conversion for Ben Jane. With only 15 minutes to go and two points behind, for a while it looked as if yet again Liskeard-Looe were going to come away without league points. The situation was aggravated when Mark Bunt was sin binned for an infringement in the loose. This spurred his team to even greater efforts. Time and time again Liskeard-Looe forced their way into Falmouth's territory and were repelled. Eventually, however, a clear spin move led to Duncan Fraser running in a superb try wide on the left. Liskeard-Looe continued to apply pressure and were still just about in control at the final whistle. This was by far the best Lions display this season. Every player put in maximum effort for the full 80 minutes. There was commitment and communication all the way through and the result was a cracking game of rugby and a deserved win. If this attitude is carried forward, the rest of the season will be very exciting and the club should retain its place in the Cornwall and Devon League. The team has expressed its appreciation of the support from the touchline on Saturday and hope they will all come along again and bring friends with them.