CORNWALL ONE

Liskeard-Looe 16

Stithians 0

IN very muddy and sticky conditions, third-placed Liskeard Looe took on Cornwall One leaders Stithians at Lux Park in a match that neither side could afford to lose.

From the start Liskeard went on the attack and pressurised the Stithians line, only to turn the ball over once they got into a good scoring position.

Stithians, under pressure and in their 22, could only clear their lines and kick down the field, giving possession back to Liskeard, who again went on the attack through forward power and some good moves in the rucks.

The only score to give the good sized home crowd to cheer about came in the sixth minute when Liskeard-Looe were awarded a penalty about 25 metres out, and Baz Hocking duly slotted it over.

After some words of wisdom from coach Chris Hocking and a good talking to by captain Tristan Nicholas, Liskeard-Looe came out in the second period and played like a club who deserved to be in the last 16 in the country of the EDF Junior Vase.

They raised their game and it soon paid dividends. On 45 minutes, following a strong forward surge up the field, Stithians gave away a penalty in front of the post within easy kicking range.

To the disbelief of the crowd – and a show of faith in his forwards – Jamie Robbins went for touch and gave Liskeard-Looe a line-out about eight metres out.

The forwards repaid his faith, securing good clean line-out ball, and drove towards the visitors' line, with Lewis Elliott scoring in the corner. The conversion was missed.

Liskeard-Looe kept to their game-plan, blending good strong forward play and running rugby from the backs.

The pack were starting to get on top in the set-pieces, giving their backs quality ball to work with.

It took a further 20 minutes for them to add to the score, though, through Jamie Robbins' penalty.

From the restart, the hosts again took the game to Stithians, eventually winning a line out about 10m from the Stithians line. Again the line-out worked well, with a good clean catch-and-drive resulting in a try in the corner for Adam Driver.

Liskeard-Looe can now forget about the League for a week while they switch their attention to the EDF Junior Vase tomorrow.

They take on Campion from Romford, Essex, in a 2.00 pm kick off at Lux Park, weather permitting. All are welcome and it should be a good day. As supporters you are invited and welcome to come up to the bar afterwards.

Liskeard head coach Chris Hocking said: 'We think we have got a fair chance against Campion.

'They are in a similar level of league to what we are, but anybody in the last 16 should be in with a chance of going quite a way now in the competition.

'We haven't found out a large amount about them, but they are third in their league and have won their last two games.

'Home advantage is a big help to us, as they have got a long way to come, and we are in reasonable form, but we've got a couple of players out through injury at the moment.'

Hocking added: 'The more supporters who can come along to watch on Saturday the better.

'All the old players should turn up to watch us; We had a few come out of the woodwork last weekend and, hopefully, a few more this weekend.'