CORNWALL AND DEVON LEAGUE St Just 21 Liskeard-Looe 11 St Just started the game at breakneck speed and within three minutes were as many points up. Liskeard-Looe were caught offside and fly half Jamie Semmens slotted over a good kick. Liskeard-Looe looked to have little cohesion or understanding and St Just took full advantage, keeping the visitors penned in their own half for long periods. They went further ahead when Anthony Stephenson ran in a try. For a while Liskeard-Looe got themselves back in the game, making inroads into St Just territory and got their reward when Marcus Hill converted a penalty. Things started to look a bit brighter but once again a lack of basic team communication by allowed St Just to snuff out some good moves and regain the initiative. Just before half time the home side increased their lead when Richard Harris finished off a nice phase of open rugby to score the best try of the game. The second half followed a similar pattern. Liskeard-Looe opened brightly enough. Tom Gilbard was replaced by Rob Vivian, who moved to full back, allowing Baz Hocking to move to the wing. Liskeard-Looe attempted to play open running rugby, but all too often, slow ball from the breakdown meant St Just could organise their defence. Eventually, however, St Just were penalised and Marcus Hill kicked the penalty. Regrettably the Lions were unable to retain their slight advantage. The St Just pack pushed Liskeard-Looe off their own ball on several occasions and Jamie Semmens restored the lead with a well-taken penalty. In the last quarter of the game, Liskeard-Looe began to put a few phases together, but were still being pushed around in the pack and only retained equality by virtue of some good tackling and defence. All too often however, the ball was stopped from going out the line. A pity, because wings Baz Hocking and Neil Spencer looked to be the two quickest players on the field. Eventually, however, the ball did get out wide for #Baz Hocking to produce a mazy run and compete an excellent try. St Just found extra reserves of energy and by keeping the ball tight in the forwards, they made frequent access into Liskeard-Looe territory. The pressure eventually told when Simon Stone scored the final try of the afternoon to give St Just a 21-11 win. This was not a good display by a depleted Liskeard-Looe, who were missing five or so first choice players, but the replacements drafted in had all played first team rugby this season and performed well as individuals. What was lacking was team commitment and understanding. The team didn't come together as a unit and play for each other, at most phases. The exception was at the line-out, where Ian Goldsmith and Adam Driver took plenty of good ball, which is not possible these days without the support of the rest of the pack. One can only hope that this was a hiccup in what has been a good team display over the past couple of months. No doubt training will be quite interesting over the next couple of weeks. The next league match is on Saturday March 12 at Liskeard against second-placed Kingsbridge. Given a return to the spirit and cohesion of the past few weeks, this promises to be a fascinating and exciting encounter. It would be great to see a good crowd to support the Lions on their own patch.